Rights and Democracy "gong show" in the National Post

-written by R&D board member Marco Navarro-Genie, on the same day we are hearing from the three fired members of Rights and Democracy at the Foreign Affairs committee (see below).

And what a gong show stinker editorial it is too : Marco Navarro-Genie: The Rights & Democracy gong show arrives in Ottawa

According to Navarro-Genie, the Foreign Affairs committee is involved in "a kangaroo court" orchestrated by "the coalition-government- wanabees (Bloc-Liberal-NDP)" to "try and then convict good Canadian citizens whose only crime is to do their duty to look out for Canadian taxpayers" :

"They have concocted one fantasy in which Harper government neo-cons sought to destroy the "independence" of Rights and Democracy, and a second fantasy in which pro-Israel foreign policy has been imposed on an innocent staff only interested in human rights. How wonderfully irresistible for Harper Haters and Israel Bashers."

"There never was an ‘Israel issue' at Rights and Democracy," states Navarro-Genie and then goes on to complain that the Foreign Affairs committee is beginning its hearings into the R&D controversy "starting on the first day of Passover which reflects its attitude toward Jewish Canadians".

Particularly egregious is his statement that now deceased president Beauregard's widow is being "dragged before Parliament by ghoulish Opposition members". This after the Con committee member Jim Abbott filibustered the last meeting for its entire session with the precise intention of preventing her appearance after she had publicly requested permission to appear in a letter to the committee.

Navarro-Génie ends by saying "Only the board, maligned as it is, wants to protect the organization and the taxpayer", a stirring ring of endorsement for R&D which would have greater credibility had he and the other board members not already written previous editorials in the National Post doubting whether R&D had any right to exist.

So what has put the wind up Navarro-Genie this morning?
Here are two notable moments from witnesses at the committee today :

One. Remember R&D interim Chair Aurel Braun's "discovery" that $10,000 each had been awarded to "toxic anti-Israel" organisations Al Haq, Al Mezan and B'Tselem by R&D to document human rights violations committed during the invasion of Gaza?

Panoussian testified that he had told Braun of the three one-time grants - which represented .2% of the R&D budget - within the first hour of his first briefing with Braun on Braun's first day on the job.
If true, so much for "The board discovered the information only by diligently pursuing the facts.".

Two. Secretary of the Board Marie-France Cloutier testified that after Mr. Beauregard informed the Board in a March 2009 meeting that "Rights and Democracy would not participate in any way in the Durban Review Conference even if invited", Aurel Braun asked her to "change the minutes of the meeting to attribute this decision to himself and the board" instead. She refused, offering to bring his suggestion up at the next meeting for a vote. Yes, she's been fired.

More from Kady, live-blogging the meeting. Or you can listen to it yourself here.
Written evidence from the three fired R&D witnesses here.
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Rights and Democracy - remember them? - and the Canada-Colombia FTA

The Canada-Colombia-how-much-for-the-little-girl?-Free Trade Investment Agreement, or Bill C2, will pass third reading later today just as Martha Hall Findlay begins to get the feeling back in her lower jaw.

Last fall the parliamentary Trade Committee recommendations on C-2, then known as C-23, included one for an independent human rights assessment before the deal passed. Last fall this recommendation was considered integral to passing the agreement. This year the Libs don't much care for it, having jettisoned it in favour of Lib Scott Brison's preference for hearing about human rights abuses after they occur.

From 2007 through 2009, one of the recommendations read :

"that an independent, impartial, and comprehensive human rights impact assessment should be carried out by a competent body, which is subject to levels of independent scrutiny and validation; the recommendations of this assessment should be addressed before Canada considers signing, ratifying and implementing an agreement with Colombia."

And who was to do this human rights assessment?

"The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada draw on the work of the organization Rights and Democracy to give an independent body the mandate to conduct studies regarding the impact on rights and the environment when it is negotiating economic agreements with countries at risk, as in the case of the agreement with Colombia."

And look what happened to them.
They got a new chairman, a new president, four new board members, and a new mandate at the bottom of Steve's sock drawer.

What sort of work might R&D have recommended on a potential trade agreement with Colombia if they hadn't been gutted?

R&D Feb. 1, 2007 :

"Colombian paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso’s recent admission that he facilitated the disappearance and killing of celebrated indigenous leader Kimy Pernia Domico, winner of Rights & Democracy’s 2003 John Humphrey Freedom Award, raises new concerns that justice for victims of human rights abuses will not be served by Colombia’s current demobilization process.

R&D goes on to note that Kimy Pernia Domico had come to Canada years before to give testimony to Members of Parliament about :

"the devastating effects of an internationally-funded hydroelectric dam on the Embera-Katio’s traditional lands and livelihoods, a project which received $18.2-million in funding from Export Development Canada."

Say, how did that work out?

Land and Life, a 2007 doc film from Kathy Price, former CBC foreign affairs producer :

"examines the devastating impact of a hydroelectric project on the Embera Katío Indigenous people and raises disturbing questions about a Canadian crown corporation that provided financing."

Was the gutting of Rights and Democracy only about protecting Israel from criticism?
Maybe not. Maybe it wasn't supposed to blow up like that. Maybe, as they could not have forseen the death of Remy Beauregard, staff were not expected to rebel.
Maybe Steve thought the addition of a few new board members was all that was needed to get R&D to write him up some really enthusiastic reports on Colombia's remarkable progress in reducing poverty by 1% per year while simultaneusly increasing the gap between rich and poor for the benefit of whichever oil or mining project we are funding there this week.

That appears to be Scott Brison's job now.
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Chairman Braun before the Rights and Democracy committee.

The Rights and Democracy chair, vice-chair, and two board members got their say before the Foreign Affairs committee today.

The main problem, said Vice-Chair Jacques Gautier, is that too much power accrued to the former now deceased chair Remy Beauregard, and the organization also lacked transparency, accountability, and oversight and just did not follow the rules.

Item : In the past few weeks, the new recalibrated R&D board has hired 1)the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais, 2)the security firm Groupe Sirco, 3)the auditing firm Deloitte and Touche, 4)the PR firm Prima Communications, and 5)a new CEO.

Item : "Under current rules, the agency is required to call for tenders for contracts worth more than $10,000; must seek at least three tenders; and justify the choice “taking into account the price, the services offered and their quality."

NDP Paul Dewar was annoyed docs had not been supplied to the committee as requested. Were these contracts for more than $10,000?
After considerable prodding from Dewar to the effect that it was just not credible that an acting president have no idea what five contracts handed out under his watch might be worth, Vice Chair and interim President Gauthier eventually answered: Yes. Certainly more than $10,000.
Dewar : And were they tendered?
Gauthier : Um, no.

Oh dear.
But no worries. A week ago Chairman Aurel Braun recommended a bylaw change which would exempt the R&D president from having to follow those rules when "engaging agents, consultants and advisors."
Probably will need to be backdated to cover these five contracts from back in January and February though. And would this not in itself constitute the dreaded "accruing more power and control to the president"?

Chairman Aurel Braun's largely incoherent answers bore little relevance to the questions put to him but did at every opportunity inveigh against past R&D funding given to Al Haq in the West Bank, Al Mezan in Gaza, and B'Tselem in Israel, which he called "terrorist organizations which pretend to be human rights orgs". Al Haq, according to Braun, is a front for terrorists and also money has gone to the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and this is apparently anti-Israel and a bad thing. War crimes were mentioned, he said, and other things "not within the conscience of the Canadian people."

Libs Bob Rae and Bernard Patry and Bloc Johanne Deschamps both try to nail this anti-Israel business down, pointing out that the Israeli NGO B'Tselem is universally respected by virtually every government in Europe and the Israeli army, but as Board member and B'nai Brith lawyer David Matas pointed out while advising the committee to read his book - presumably Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism - "the Palestinians are called civilians but they throw stones."

Honourable mention for skating around in circles as far away from the puck as possible goes to Con Peter Goldring in collaboration with former Con candidate, missionary, and R&D board member Brad Farquhar. Goldring asked about political party development - some countries have 40 or 50 parties! - and how about Haiti, huh? Haiti has a serious lack of understanding about how democracy works. Farquhar was more than happy to answer at length a question having nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand. What is an election platform? he asks rhetorically. "In Tajikistan we had to teach them how to go out and doorknock and they weren't sure they were even allowed to do that. The transition from a former totalitarian state to a democratic state ... . We brought people from Bolivia to help in Haiti..." Oh look - time's up!

Overall the board's statements were remarkably short on the "documented facts" they kept insisting were their only concern despite the fact they hadn't brought any, not counting Matas' book. Braun charged that 46 out of 48 R&D staff who signed a letter calling for the resignations of board members were possibly coerced into signing it in exchange for a "rushed collective agreement". Much was made of the fact the board was not advised of the collective agreement. Mention was made of a contract awarded to a past R&D employee. Braun blamed the staff for the break-in and the stolen computers. The one thing none of them much wanted to discuss was Tuesday's gong show editorial written by the fifth R&D board member Marco Navarro-Genie not present at the meeting today.

Grisly blow-by-blow ably live-blogged by Kady.
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Canadian policy on Israel - It's a small, small, small world

It's so small it seems to fit entirely inside the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism held in Israel in December. Speaking and chairing panels at that conference were ImmigrationMin Jason Kenney, Israeli NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg, and Senior Legal Counsel to B'nai Brith Canada and new Rights and Democracy board member - David Matas.

It was from that conference that Jason Kenney announced the funding cut to KAIROS in his speech about combating antisemitism in Canada. Back home in Canada his office sited the rightwing Israeli thinktank NGO Monitor as disapproving of KAIROS when asked for an explanation of the cuts. As it happens, NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg was chairing a panel on Trends in the Delegitimization of Israel at the same conference.

Steinberg has been staging what he calls a Name and Shame campaign against a number of mideast human rights groups including KAIROS - and Oxfam! - since 2004. UNRWA, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, was also on that hit list and in January it had its Canadian funding restricted to food aide only. Steinberg crowed about it in the Jerusalem Post and has promised to name names to our own Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism .

Most recently the Cons have blown up the Montreal human rights organization Rights and Democracy by stacking the board with pro-Israel hawks. Ex-VP of B'nai Brith and current R&D Chairman Aurel Braun invited NGO Monitor Gerald Steinberg to speak at R&D - you can watch Braun gracelessly slag previous R&D Chair Ed Broadbent at the CTV link below.
New R&D appointee David Matas co-chaired a panel on Antisemitism in Cyberspace at the Israel conference this December. Matas favours an enlarged definition of what constitutes "new anti-semitism". Matas :

"If you accuse Israel of crimes against humanity and Israel has committed crimes against humanity, then it is a legitimate criticism. If Israel has committed no such crimes, then it is antisemitism.

In my book Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism published by Dundurn Press, I have written chapter after chapter detailing criminal accusation after criminal accusation against Israel, and showing that all these accusations have no foundation either in fact or in law. The mere fact that the criticism would be legitimate if the accusations were warranted, does not save these accusations from the charge of antisemitism."

Paul Wells and Dr. Dawg have both done excellent coverage of the whole Rights and Democracy debacle and Kudos to CTV for their surprise coverage also.

Did I mention the next Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, parent of our own Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, is expected to be held in Canada this year? You can read their London Declaration from last year's conference here.
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Rights and Democracy gone rogue

Go, Paul Wells!

A good overview of the Rights and Democracy debacle : Paul Wells from Maclean's, Chris Selley from the National Post, Payam Akhavan who recently quit the R&D board of directors, and David Matas who was reappointed to the board in November after having previously served on it from 1997 to 2003.

The Cons' attempts to align Canadian policy with that of the far right in Israel began with their 2006 support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon and the seige of Gaza and their boast of being the first country to cut off aid to Palestine for democratically electing the 'wrong' government. It continued with the banning of George Galloway from Canada, the defunding of KAIROS and UNRWA, the political flyers insinuating that the Libs are soft on anti-Semitism, and the establishment of the orwellian Canadian Parliamentary Coalition on Combating Antisemitism.

A week ago the media reacted with astonishment when Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Kent told a Toronto publication that "an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada," despite the fact there is no military treaty between Canada and Israel to back that up.

Hey guys, wake up. This is not the first time he has said this. Peter Kent on his own website, July 2009 :

"We have only one policy on Israel and that is to stand with the only true democracy in the Middle East. We have, as you know, proclaimed many times Canada’s position that an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada."

An attack on Rights and Democracy or even just on plain old democracy, not so much.

Kudos again to Paul Wells and also Dr. Dawg for all their stellar investigative journalism here.

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Afghanistan's election day

For the cheerful side of the Afghan election, here's the BBC :

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies have pronounced the country's election a success, after voting passed off largely peacefully

including a helpful vid on how the indelible ink used to mark the index finger of people who have already voted won't wash off for four to five days. The UN rep said so.

Or you could go to the Guardian : Presidential poll day sees low turnout amid bombings, fraud claims and 'indelible' finger markings that wash off

where a voter turns up half an hour after voting with his finger washed clean.

A week ago a BBC reporter bought several ballots cheaply at a local market and reported that most Afghan women would not be voting as the country was short over a thousand female scrutineers to search those women who had not already been forbidden to vote by their families and husbands. Rural elders were also advised that things would go badly for them if people in their villages did not vote as instructed and ballot boxes were delivered to polling stations pre-stuffed.

Two days ago Democracy Now carried the news that a warlord reputedly responsible for the "death by container" of 2000 supposed Taliban who foolishly surrendered to Afghan and ISAF forces in 2001 had returned to Afghanistan to enlist support for Karzai :
Eight Years After Orchestrating Massacre at Dasht-e-Leili, Afghan Warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum Returns to Afghanistan to Campaign for Karzai

Reuters :

"My coming back will help peace and stability," he [Dostrum] said. "I want to sit with my American friends and make a plan so that within two or three years, we will secure all of Afghanistan."
Asked what type of job he would like if Karzai was to be re-elected, he said he was not interested in working as a cabinet minister, but would be interested in a security-related role.
He said he had repeatedly turned down offers to be one of Karzai's two vice presidents.
"I have a lot of experience dealing with terrorism and if Karzai wants it, or our international friends who are battling terrorism want, I am prepared to work. Other than this, I'm not interested in becoming this or that minister," he said.

Asked about the massacre at Dasht-e-Leili, the investigation of which has been repeatedly derailed by the Bush government while witnesses to the massacre continue to be killed off, Dostrum said :

"The United States of America, international friends, they should put together a group, a strong commission, to ask the truth," he said. "It wasn't just General Dostum."

Malalai Joya, today : Don't be fooled by this facade of democracy

"We Afghans know that this election will change nothing and it is only part of a show of democracy put on by and for the West, to legitimize its future puppet in Afghanistan. It seems we are doomed to see the continuation of this failed, mafia-like corrupt government for another term.

Democracy will never come to Afghanistan through the barrel of a gun, or from the cluster bombs dropped by foreign forces. The struggle will be long and difficult, but the values of real democracy, human rights and women's rights will only be won by the Afghan people themselves.

So do not be fooled by this façade of democracy. Your governments in the West that claim to be bringing democracy to Afghanistan ignore public opinion in their own countries, where growing numbers are against the war. President Obama in particular needs to understand that the change Afghans believe in does not include more troops and a ramped up war. "
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Joya notes Karzai has implemented the infamous law allowing Shia women to be starved for disobedience to their husbands and quotes Human Rights Watch : "Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election."

It's almost enough to make you long for 2006 and the days of Josee Verner's platitudes about little girls and their little schoolhouses and Steve's warmongering about his place on the world stage :

"I can tell you it's certainly engaged our military," the Prime Minister told CBC. "It's, I think, made them a better military notwithstanding — and maybe in some way because of — the casualties."

Harper added that Canada's current role in Afghanistan is "certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community."

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Rights and Democracy : Gonging the Gong Show

A witness appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Situation at Rights and Democracy today was simultaneously smeared in a Canwest editorial. (h/t Dr. Dawg)
After hearing his new allegations of financial irregularities on the part of the board below, as well as its ties to NGO Monitor, the rightwing Israeli think tank the HarperCons are currently getting their Mideast foreign policy from, you can see why someone might want to pre-empt his credibility.

Rather longish I'm afraid but as I haven't seen this covered anywhere else, here are my excerpted notes from the testimony of Payam Akhavan, Professor of International Law at McGill, and, before he quit in disgust in January, a former member of the R&D Board of Directors.

Akhavan : I was honoured to be appointed by this government as a director of R&D in Feb 2008. Faced with abuse of power in an organization devoted to human rights I cannot remain silent.

Remy Beauregard was appointed June 2008. The Aug 2008 five year review of R&D by Foreign Affairs was positive. Auditor General's June 2009 report also positive. Contrary to Braun's testimony, R&D was not dysfunctional but in the months that followed his appointment the organization disintegrated due to a hostile takeover of the board.

At Braun's first meeting as chair on March 26th, the board was highly satisfied with Beauregard's performance but the Chair instructed the secretary not to record this in the minutes. Braun and Gauthier were concerned about small grants to 3 orgs. As a compromise, Beauregard agreed not to provide further funds. Braun also insisted that he should have a veto over all future grants. Again we accepted a review procedure as a compromise.

Beauregard had already decided to boycott Durban with the unanimous support of the board. Their review of him attempted to paint him as anti-Israel on the very issues that had already been resolved to every body's satisfaction. The review looked to us like character assassination.
A law firm was retained at $17,000 to justify their decision to keep the review secret. When disclosed through Privacy Act at June 18 board meeting, we gave them the opportunity to amend it and they agreed. One board member resigned. On oct 19, Braun and allies cancelled board meeting on two days notice to avoid amending the report. On Nov 8 after two new board appointments, Braun called a meeting of board for Jan 7th. With a one-vote majority, the new board met with Beauregard in acrimonious meeting. Navarro-Genie referred to us in an email exchange as 'third worldists', comparing us to Robert Mugabe, and contrasted us to 'Her Majesties North American subjects'.

Sima Samar and I decided to walk out in protest. It was a moment of utter shame. Beauregard was distressed knowing he would probably have to resign. After his passing but before his funeral could be held, we were shocked to learn that internal documents were leaked to Ezra Levant and Gerald Steinberg to continue smearing his reputation. The call for resignations by the 45 staff was motivated by loyalty to the institution. An estimated half a million dollars is now being spent on private investigators to investigate staff without tender.

Unethical conduct cannot go without consequences. Gauthier wrote that Beauregard met with representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah, saying the legality of these meetings was questionable under the criminal code, punishable by 10 years imprisonment. Beauregard said the allegations were patently false and an attack on his reputation.
Recommendations : Remove smear review of Beauregard with an apology; call on Tepper, Gauthier, and Braun to resign; and reconstitute the entire board.

Bob Rae : I knew Beauregard and worked closely with him - a man of great intelligence and integrity.
In an article by Mr [Barry] Cooper in the Calgary Herald - Mr Cooper is a prof at the University of Calgary - he claims to have received information from board member Mr. Navarro-Genie in which he states between May 2009 and Jan 2010 :

"Beauregard managed to turn several "international" members of the board against the performance review committee by granting them favours, including travel perks, interns, and funding for projects in their home countries, according to Marco Navarro, an R&D board member."

Could you comment on any conflicts of interest you may have been under while a member of the board?

Akhaven : There were 3 distinguished international board members.
Astonishing to suggest that Dr. Sima Samar was bought by giving her an intern. In Canwest today I am accused of requesting a nomination to a UN position. Absolutely baseless. You have before you the email where I asked Mr Beauregard's advice in relation to a war crimes inquiry in Sri Lanka which was not established by the UN and which members of this government wanted me to participate in. I asked his advice regarding a nomination. They have hired private investigators to go through thousands of Beauregard's emails and this is the best accusation they can come up with?

Bob Rae : Do you have any idea how would Canwest have received that email? Presumably it is proprietorial to the investigation and the board.

Akhavan : Presumably the same way Ezra Levant and Gerald Steinberg got them.
Mr Navarro-Genie has been in Haiti on behalf of R&D and charged $1,400 to R&D for four extra days "for personal purposes".
Gauthier went on a 6 day trip to China, received 11 days of fee from R&D of $3,575 where other members received a $500 honorarium.
The Board's budget for $130,000 for the previous fiscal year was already approaching $300,000 when I left. A big part of that were honoraria paid to board members to come and speak here as if they are volunteers. The honoraria which were budgeted at $40,000 were approaching $80,000 by the time I left the board.

Rae : Board members are paid? How?

Akhavan : Board members are paid an honorarium for every full day of work that they do.

Rae : If they travel do they get permission if they go on a mission? And expenses?

Akhavan : Mr Navarro-Genie, who has been leaking info to the press was for a week at the office of R&D in a position as a senior advisor. We don't know what his mandate was, how much he was paid. The contract was given to him by acting president Gauthier. Was it to go through Beauregard's emails to find dirt about me and international board members to leak them to the media? Is this a good use of taxpayer's money? Astonishing.

Lalonde : Regarding the 3 grants to two Palestinian and one Israeli group.
On the weekend on Radio Canada there was a report on NGO Monitor and its influence in Canada. Is there any link between NGO Monitor and any board members?

Akhavan : There are legitimate concerns about the demonization of Israel at the UN. 80% of resolutions at the UN are against Israel while Sudan Iran etc escape scrutiny, but organizations like NGO Monitor have gone too far at suppressing all dissent. Mr. Braun had tried unsuccessfully against the opposition of the board to get Mr [Gerald] Steinberg to address the board and one of the first articles to come out after the death of Mr Beauregard was from Mr Steinberg in the Jerusalem Post and then the National Post. He had access to internal documents of the board. Matas' repudiation of the 3 grants is based entirely on NGO Monitor. The link is clearly there.

Yosi Alfer, former advisor to Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says this about NGO Monitor :

"NGO Monitor seems dead set against human rights monitoring of Israel and smearing anyone who supports this vital activity."

Within Israel, NGO Monitor is seen as a far right political organization. I am baffled as to how such an institution can have so much influence over R&D. In describing B'Tselem, the chair says it is 'Israeli in name only'.
This is the language of the far right in Israel.
On Feb 13 2007, because of a libel lawsuit that was brought against NGO Monitor before the Israeli courts, Gerald Steinberg issued the following retraction : " I regret having called El Mizan an organization that justifies violence".
There are legitimate concerns about one-sided attacks against Israel but we are now more extreme in Canada than people are in Israel.

Jim Abbott : Should the staff be telling the board which direction to be going in?

Akhavan : One staff member did not sign the letter asking for the three board members' resignations and is the source of the allegation that a collective agreement was signed in exchange for signing the letter. On the day the Director of Communications Charles Vallerand was fired, Mr Gauthier tried to promote that staff member to the position of Director of Communications.

Paul Dewar : Board member Marco Navarro-Genie was awarded a contract by the board to work for the board?

Akhavan : While Mr Gauthier was acting president, Navarro-Genie was hired for a week as a senior advisor, for an unspecified sum and an unspecified mandate.

Note : Marco Navarro-Genie wrote an editorial in the National Post on March 30 : The Rights & Democracy gong show arrives in Ottawa
in which he described the Foreign Affairs committee's investigation into the situation at R&D as "a kangaroo court" orchestrated by "the coalition-government- wanabees (Bloc-Liberal-NDP)" to "try and then convict good Canadian citizens whose only crime is to do their duty to look out for Canadian taxpayers".
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Inside the new recalibrated Foreign Affairs committee

... the first new recalibrated government filibuster got underway.

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The Foreign Affairs committee had one hour before Question Period to schedule a witness list for their investigation into the Rights and Democracy debacle.

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Motion from Bernard Patry, Lib : To allow the widow of former Rights and Democracy President Rémy Beauregard to appear before the committee on the 25th to speak on behalf of her dead husband and to schedule the fired R&D staff for the 30th.

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Con Deepak Obhrai interjected "We must have a debate first", whereupon Con Chair Dean Allison gave the floor to Con Jim Abbott - yes, him again.

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Abbott began with his opinion that the committee "does not have the right to micromanage the Foreign Affairs Dept." The inclusion of Beauregard's widow would be "outside the bounds of this committee" and further "there would be an emotional reaction to a situation over which this committee has absolutely no control."

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What if we also allowed corporations like the CBC to appear, he asked, or perhaps the EDC, before veering off into a rant about Bill C-300 and the possible restrictions it might cause Canadian mining abroad.

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After half an hour, Patry asked if Abbott was going to respond to his motion about the witness list.

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"I'm 30 seconds away from making my point", said Abbott, continuing on about unions and the G8 conference and women in Sudan and arctic sovereignty and the great headlines the Cons get in the G&M and banks and the CMHC until the end of the hour.

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Somewhere in there he mentioned that he had no objection to the new R&D president and chair and new board members appearing before the committee because they had been appointed by the government of Canada and "could explain to us what direction the government wants to go."

Well, so much for the new pres and board members being arms length.

As to the fired R&D board members, he said :

"they can send out flyers or go on tv."

When the Chair "adjourned the debate", advising that "as this is going nowhere, opposition and government should get together to agree on a witness list before the next meeting", Abbott had one last point he wished to make :

"Just a quick point of order here - as we know, when a member has the floor, he or she has the floor, so I'm presuming that I will continue to have the floor when we get back together again."

The chair assured him that he would indeed have it and adjourned the meeting.

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So. Are we to expect the other committees to go the same way?

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Update : Cliff suggests that Abbott needs to hear from us about his shameful behavior here.

Jim Abbott : Telephone:(613) 995-7246 Fax: (613) 996-9923
EMail: AbbotJ@parl.gc.ca

cc to Chair Dean Allison: Telephone: (613) 995-2772 Fax:(613) 992-2727
EMail:AllisD@parl.gc.ca

and co-committee members Bob Rae : RaeB@parl.gc.ca , Paul Dewar : DewarP@parl.gc.ca , and Bernard Patry : PatryB@parl.gc.ca whose motion it was to allow Trepanier to appear.

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Write nice. Remember these sometimes get read out in the House.

If you need talking points, Cliff's got 'em.

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Summit of the Americas

Harper at the Summit-of-the-Americas-of-34-countries-minus-Cuba is described in the G&M as a lone wolf boosting free trade :
Steve : "There are some countries that want to keep fighting the Cold War and frankly wars that go a lot farther back than that."
United Fruit Co?
After urging a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations : "That said … we don't turn a blind eye to the fact that Cuba is a communist dictatorship and that we want to see progress on freedom, democracy and human rights as well as on economic matters."

Indeed, ALBA - the trade group comprised of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela - had a few points of its own to make about progress, freedom, democracy and human rights, including the embargo of Cuba. ALBA has said it will not sign the Summit Declaration until they are addressed.
Excerpted :

• Capitalism has provoked an ecological crisis by subordinating the necessary conditions for life on this planet to the dominance of the market and profit.

• We question the G20’s decision to triple the amount of resources going to the International Monetary Fund, when what is really necessary is the establishment of a new world economic order that includes the total transformation of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO [World Trade Organisation], which with their neoliberal conditions have contributed to this global economic crisis.

• We condemn discrimination against migrants in all its forms. Migration is a human right, not a crime.

• The solutions to the energy, food and climate change crises have to be integral and interdependent. We cannot resolve a problem by creating others in the areas fundamental to life. For example, generalising the use of agro-fuels can only impact negatively on the price of food and in the utilisation of essential resources such as water, land and forests.

• Basic services such as education, health, water, energy and telecommunications have to be declared human rights and cannot be the objects of private business nor be commodified by the World Trade Organisation. These services are and should be essential, universally accessible public services.

• [E]liminate interventionist practices such as covert operations, parallel diplomacy, media wars aimed at destabilising states and governments, and the financing of destabilising groups. It is fundamental that we construct a world in which a diversity of economic, political, social and cultural approaches are recognised and respected.

• The legitimate struggle against narco-trafficking and organised crime, and any other manifestation of the denominated “new threats,” should not be utilised as excuses for carrying out acts of interference or intervention against our countries.

Hugo Chavez presented Obama with a book : "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent." He then suggested that the next Summit of the Americas be held in Cuba.
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Rights and Democracy : "Canada's credibility is at stake"

The International Federation for Human Rights has denounced the Cons "political interference" at Rights & Democracy :

G&M :

"The federation, an umbrella group of 155 human rights organizations operating in more than 100 countries, also slammed the government's choice of Gérard Latulippe as the troubled agency's new president.

It said Mr. Latulippe “does not have the moral authority to lead an organization like Rights & Democracy” given his past statements about the potential for Muslim immigrants to breed homegrown terrorism, his support for capital punishment and his opposition to same-sex marriage."

Naturally this will not cut any ice with Steve or Lawrence Cannon who appointed Latulippe, because the International Federation for Human Rights is on the NGO Monitor's shitlist, NGO Monitor being the Israeli think tank that appears to be currently determining Canada's foreign policy decisions in the Mid East.

NGO Monitor does not care for the federation's use of the terms "occupied Palestinian territories" or "crimes against humanity" when describing Israeli military or government actions, despite the IFHR's accompanying condemnation of the roles played by Syria and Iran.

NGO Monitor probably also doesn't like the fact that B'telem and Al Haq, the two NGOs at the centre of the Cons recent sacking of R&D and the bêtes noires of the organization’s newly-stacked pro-Israel board majority, are distinguished and valued members of IFHR.

"Canada's credibility is at stake," the federation said in a news release, citing support for B'telem and Al Haq and calling for an independent investigation.

Note to Steve : World stage! World stage!
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China, Canada sign military co-operation initiative

If you aren't in the habit of reading the China People's Daily, you probably missed the news that Canada signed a military co-operation agreement with China this summer - because certainly our own media haven't seen fit to mention it. 

When DefMin Airshow MacKay met his counterpart General Chang Wanquan in Beijing in June, CBC only reported on how MacKay "laid down clear markers" on "cyberattacks originating in China", comparing hacking to terrorism. 

The People's Daily had a slightly different take on the same meeting : 
China, Canada sign initiative on military co-operation.

"China and Canada signed an initiative on military cooperation as defense ministers of the two countries held talks in Beijing on Monday. The two sides held that China and Canada are important countries to the Asia-Pacific region and bear common responsibilities in safeguarding peace, stability and prosperity in the region."

... called the tarsands, they did not add.                Here's the DND version.

Meanwhile, the Canada-China FIPA investment agreement, which had been tabled last September, was still quietly moldering away in some mysterious Con legal netherworld while Steve approved the $15.1-billion takeover of Nexen by the Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC.  

Five days ago, China DefMin General Chang was in Ottawa signing the "People's Liberation Army military cooperation program and Canadian Initiative" according to Xinhua, and shaking hands with Canada's new DefMin Rob Nicholson, who swapped portfolios with MacKay in July.

Again from The People's Daily : 
China, Canada vow to strengthen military cooperation

"Chang said military relations between China and Canada have maintained a sound momentum of development, as evidenced by frequent contacts between military leaders of the two sides, and their smooth and close coordination on global and regional issues.
Meanwhile, continuous progress has been made in bilateral military cooperation, such as in military training, international peace-keeping, defense education and mutual visits by warships, he said."

Three days previously, Chang signed a similar sounding deal with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in Washington ... peace, stability, security, prosperity, yadda yadda yadda.

Chang said China had been invited to participate in next year's RIMPAC in Hawaii, "the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise", along with 22 other countries including the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, and Japan.

The day after Nicholson and Chang signed their symbolic war games agreement in Ottawa, MultiCultMin Jason Kenney and CitImmMin Chris Alexander announced $1.5-million in federal funds to build a memorial in Ottawa to the tens of millions of innocent victims of Communist regimes around the world :

Once completed, this memorial will teach future generations how millions lost their lives and suffered in inhumane conditions at the hands of Communist regimes,” said Minister Kenney. “It will also serve as a reminder to all Canadians that glorifying Communist symbols insults the memory of these victims, and that we must never take for granted our core values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Ooodles of press gravy for the red meat base on this one.
I'm guessing the monument got a nice press kit and the military co-operation agreement did not.

Your second moment of irony - see the man to the left of Nicholson and Chang in the People's Daily photo op above ? That's former CSIS director Richard Fadden, who shocked people three years ago with his remarks about public officials and cabinet ministers in BC/Alberta being under the influence of China, however unwittingly.

This April, CBC reported that Fadden had been shuffled to Defence.

Here's part of that 2010 interview with Mansbridge :

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Update : Laila Yuile was on this days ago! and included a fascinating speech from Ambassador Zhang Junsai at a luncheon in Calgary in May :

“Many people have even started to talk about North America’s potential of becoming the new Middle East.”

Thursday night update : Murray Brewster/CP breaks media silence:

 China's defence minister meets with Tory ministers amid undisclosed stop
Notable from his story : 

"Defence expert Rob Huebert said the government’s silence is puzzling and troubling.

Earlier in its tenure, the Harper government took a hard line on China’s human-rights record, Huebert said, and the Conservatives may be reluctant to be seen “cozying up” to Beijing for domestic political reasons, and at a time of heightened international tension. 

Beijing has strong trade ties with the regime of Bashar al Assad

This government does have a history of secrecy regarding contentious trade and military agreements. There was the SPP with the US and the "homeland security" accord with Israel.

Back in Oct 2007, the Jerusalem Post announced : “Israel, Canada sign security accord”, a Canada-Israel agreement on “homeland security matters”.

Stockwell Day’s comm director first denied it, then said it was non-binding : “The minister didn’t sign anything” - but Israel’s Ministry of Public Security website said signing was imminent.

Five months later Day announced it from Tel Aviv : a Canada-Israel Declaration of Intent to cooperate on mutually agreed threats like border security, a Canada-Israel border pact. 

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Abortion and the robot revolt

How heartwarming it was to watch five brave Con backbenchers rise up to defend Langley Con MP Mark Warawa's right to independent Steve-free abortion speech in the House of Commons. After years of having to recite member statements on whatever idiotic repetitive talking points the 30-somethings in the PMO assigned to them every day, this week the robots are revolting.

Con MP Brent Rathgeber : I would submit that if the House does not jealously protect the rights of members to bring forward matters of concern to their constituents and if it does not strictly enforce those rules, the roles of the private member, Parliament and ultimately democracy have all been equally compromised.

Really. You're just noticing this now?
And just like that it's no longer a matter of keeping the abortion debate on a constant low simmer in the House until we all get used to hearing womens' rights questioned there  - no, indeed our very democracy has been compromised if Con MPs aren't allowed to bring it up on a regular basis. 

Andrew Coyne has written two impassioned columns in as many days defending Warawa' right to speak. 
His Backbench revolt isn’t pro-life vs. pro-choice, it’s for the freedom of all MPs repeats some of the arguments he put forth in his 2008 column :
It's time to talk about abortion : This is not about abortion. This is about democracy 
and another one from a year ago :
The idea we can’t debate abortion is unworthy of a democratic country. 

The five Con MPs bravely supporting Mark Warawa in his campaign to save the very soul of democracy are Brent Rathgeber, John Williamson, Stephen Woodworth, Kyle Seeback, and Leon Benoit.  And here, as a gentle reminder, are the answers three of them - Woodworth, Seeback, and Benoit - gave to the Campaign Life Coalition Candidate Evaluation election questionnaire in 2011 and 2008 :

Williamson, Steve's former communications director, and Rathgeber declined to answer the Campaign Life questionnaire but both voted in favor of Woodworth's alternative abortion ploy - Motion 312 - to study when life begins in the womb, along with 86 other Con MPs and one third of cabinet.

While there are principled reasons to support MPs' right to speak freely in the House, it is notable that of all the issues this government has made a point of muzzling of their MPs on, including this one in its various previous anti-choice disguises, suddenly we are being asked to put the right of MPs to speak their minds in the House ahead of women's rights as a point of principle, led by MPs who have already committed themselves to introducing anti-choice laws.

So are we looking at a Backbencher Spring here?             
Here's Warawa free speech supporter Con MP Leon Benoit immediately after the weekly caucus meeting with Steve the following day :

Nope, guess not. Looks like Steve muzzled the groundhogs for yet another spring.
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Monday, April 1 update :  Con MP Brent Rathgeber, after the same caucus meeting :

“I think it was a good meeting. The media have reported, and I think accurately, that many members who were upset for a variety of reasons, seem to be satisfied that the issues have either been resolved or the issues are not worth resolving.”

The 24 hour Con Backbencher Spring is over.

Steve & Bibi : Book burning and honorary degrees

You didn't really think he was going to stop at muzzling scientists and librarians and historians, eliminating their jobs, burning books, and closing down Fisheries research libraries, did you?

CBC :Health Canada library changes leave scientists scrambling

Main Health Canada research library closed, access outsourced to retrieval company

Health Canada scientists are so concerned about losing access to their research library that they're finding workarounds, with one squirrelling away journals and books in his basement for colleagues to consult.

"One group moved its 250 feet of published materials to an employee's basement. When you need a book, you email 'Fred,' and 'Fred' brings the book in with him the next day."

James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers : "Scientifically, we are going to be a third-rate country."

 Tomorrow Stephen Harper will receive an honorary degree from Tel Aviv University :

"Mr. Stephen Harper will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy for his exemplary conduct as a prominent world leader who promotes freedom, human rights and the rule of law; for his efforts to advance higher education; for his open and fundamental support of the State of Israel both as a private individual and as Prime Minister of Canada, and for his active and brave participation in the struggle against anti-Semitism and other forms of extremism.

“Mr. Harper has served as Prime Minister of Canada since 2006. Since Mr. Harper entered office, his government has promoted strict laws relating to public accountability; reduced personal and company taxation to the lowest level for forty years; introduced reforms in the criminal justice system; and strengthened Canada’s international reputation as a reliable ally in the defense of freedom, democracy and human rights."

Steve, Doctor of Book Burning, will join the company of previous Tel Aviv University honorary doctorate recipients Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Angela Merkel, and Brian Mulroney. 
They give out about a dozen a year.

Wednesday update : Steve's acceptance speech :

"I am extremely flattered by the degree and the reasons for which it was awarded. Let me just say this - that I want to accept it not just on behalf of Laureen and myself but the entire Jewish Canadian community who have in our country - and really for both of our countries - merited this award a million times over."

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Harperism : From Harper and Hayek to Koch and Coyne

Neo-liberalism : trickle-down, deregulating, deunionizing, globalizing free market privatization of government.

When Stephen Harper was studying under the "Calgary school" in the 80's, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek - guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO - it formed the basis of his 1991 political economics thesis. 

Why, wondered Harper at the time, did the conservative revolution of Thatcher and Reagan bypass Canada and what could be done about it?

Happily, the Mont Pelerin Society - founded by Hayek and Milton Friedman of the Chicago School, and featuring Charles Koch CEO of Koch Industries as a board member - was there to help, founding and funding a plethora of free market think tanks in Canada via the corporate-funded neo-liberal prototype, the Institute of Economic Affairs in London UK. 

The Charles Koch Foundation on their Fraser Institute grant funding page :

"Since its inception twenty-five years ago at a series of conferences hosted by Milton Friedman and Michael Walker [executive director of the Fraser Institute from its inception in 1974], the Economic Freedom of the World Index has been used as a reliable measure of economic freedom in countries around the world."

As Donald Gutstein explains in Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada, this transformation was achieved through what Hayek called *professional second-hand dealers* - "newspaper columnists and editorial writers who parrot reports by neoliberal think tanks such as the Fraser Institute, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Montreal Economic Institute, and Atlantic Institute for Market Studies."

As it happens, the heads of all those think tanks he mentions :

• Michael Walker, founding Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute; 
• Brian Lee Crowley, founding President of Atlantic Institute for Market Studies [Atlantica!!!], and Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute;
• Peter Holle, President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy;
• Michel Kelly Gagnon, CEO of the Montreal Economic Institute

are themselves all members of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Funding to link think tanks, politicians, and journalists comes from corporations and U.S. donors, but also Canadian billionaires like Peter Munk of Barrick Gold and his Aurea Foundation.
DeSmogBlog : 

The Aurea Foundation was founded by Peter Munk, the head of Barrick Gold, and is a major funder of a small but influential network of free-market think tanks in Canada, including: The Fraser Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Frontier Center for Public Policy, the Montreal Economic Institute and the MacDonald Laurier Institute.

Gosh, same bunch again.

National Post columnist/CBC political analyst/Manning Centre for Democracy advisor Andrew Coyne is a director at Aurea Foundation, along with former National Post editor Ken Whyte and, up until he became Stephen Harper's chief of staff, Nigel Wright.  

Hayek devotee, former advisor at the federal Department of Finance in 2007-8, and Coyne's friend, Brian Lee Crowley of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute is also particularly ubiquitous in promedia. Crowley has written regular columns for the Ottawa Citizen and G&M (where he spent two years on the editorial board) expounding on subjects dear to Harper : why all of Canada benefits from the tarsands, why we need more foreign investment, the benefits of two-tier healthcare and tankers off the westcoast, and why inequality is no biggie because poverty is a matter of character.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hosted a private fund-raising dinner for Macdonald-Laurier Institute, advising invited corporate executives that he was giving MLI his personal backing and "I hope you will consider doing the same."

Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight interviewed Gutstein two days ago :

"Gutstein makes the case that neoliberalism is far more sinister than simply having a desire for smaller government. A central tenet of his new book is that Harper is undermining democracy by marshalling the power of government to create and enforce markets where they’ve never existed before.

“He’s gradually moving the country from one that’s based on democracy to one that’s based on the market, which means that the decisions are not made by our duly elected representatives through the laws that they pass and the regulations that they enact,” Gutstein says."

Coyne responded : 

You can buy Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada directly from Lorimer Publishing. 

Book launch with expert panel on issues raised by the book and hosted by the author - Wednesday October 8, 5:30 to 7:30pm at SFU Harbour Centre 

OK, if you must have a sneak peak, here's a few pages on former Liberal leadership hopeful Martha Hall Findlay at the Calgary School of Public Policy advising Harper how he could successfully dump supply management without losing any votes in order to ease Canada's entry into the investor rights deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. 
The "second-hand dealers" went absolutely apeshit for that one.
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Edited @ 11:15 for clarity

Monday update : Well this will help to cloister the second hand dealers....

The Tyee : Postmedia could soon own almost every English newspaper in Canada. What could possibly go wrong?

Tyee also has an excerpt from Gutstein's book up today : Meet the people who made possible Stephen Harper's reign.

which in turn leads to this from Andrew Mitrovica :  The Hill media war chorus clears its throat … politely
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Canada Colombia FTA : How much for the little girl Part 2

The second item on the agenda when parliament resumes on Monday is the second reading of the Canada Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Bill C-23.

The Dominion posts that :

"There are strong indications that the Liberal Party are intending to support the bill. We managed to back them off once before - we need to do so again."

and provides email addies of the relevant Lib MPs, including former human rights activist Michael Ignatieff. Go.

This can only pass with Liberal support, the Bloc and NDP are opposed.

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Yesterday the US State Department ok'd $32 million that Washington had previously withheld due to human and labour rights abuses, bringing to $545 million the total going to Colombia this fiscal year to fight gangs and drug smugglers buy access to Colombian military facilities.

"A U.N. human rights investigator reported separately in June that soldiers had killed hundreds of innocent civilians, falsely identifying them as guerrillas slain in combat to boost body counts. Officials have vowed to eliminate that practice."

Oh well then.

Of course these 'practices' have been ok with Harper since way back in 2007 :

"When we see a country like Colombia that has decided to address its social, political and economic problems in an integrated way, that wants to embrace democracy and human rights, then we say, 'We're in,' he said."

"We are not going to say fix all your social, political and human rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you. That's a ridiculous position," Harper said.

and at last year's Leaders' Summit :

"if the United States and our allies turn their back on an important ally in this region, that will have long-term security consequences for all of our countries in North America."

Not to mention putting a serious crimp in the planned relaunch of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Plan B, aka "Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas".

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Two days till C-23 hits parliament. Send a freakin letter to the Libs now. GO.

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And I suppose you could also drop a note to Steve :

How much for the little girl?

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Update : Pogge's letter :

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To: IgnatM@parl.gc.ca, RaeB@parl.gc.ca, MinnaM@parl.gc.ca, CanniJ@parl.gc.ca, BrisoS@parl.gc.ca, SilvaM@parl.gc.ca

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Dear Honorable Members:

The Conservative government has placed Bill C-23, the legislation to implement the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, on the order paper for this Monday the 14th of September. As I'm sure you are all aware, the Parliamentary Committee on International Trade has recommended that this legislation not be implemented until an objective third party does a thorough assessment on the human rights record of the Alvaro Uribe government which, by many accounts, has the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere.

I would ask that you please honour the recommendation of the committee and vote no on Bill C-23.

Yours truly,

[... ]

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I'm betting Pogge wouldn't mind if you sampled it.

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