Scotty, we need more power!

Financial Post : "Jim Prentice, the federal Industry Minister, says governments and business leaders in North America must do a better job of selling the virtues of closer economic and security links among the three countries.
In a speech Tuesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, he said there is an urgent need to "demystify" the push to closer ties among Canada, the United States and Mexico, as outlined in the Security and Prosperity Partnership launched in March of 2005."

Gosh, Jim, they're doing their level best :

Stephen Harper : "Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jelly bean? You know, I don't think so."
John Kirton, U of T expert in the environmental effects of free trade :
"For example, Canada's rules on the nutritional content of cornflakes are slightly different from those in the U.S. So many Canadians drive across the border every day, and sometimes they eat American cornflakes. None of them have died."

Jim, the spin engines are on overload - they cannae take the strain, Captain !

You know, Jim, until such time as you guys expand your jelly beans and cornflakes statements to include stuff like the no-fly lists, harmonizing pesticide regs, food and drug standards, water sovereignty, four-fold increase in tarsands production, single perimeter military policy, environmental protection, the FBI operating in Canada, the sell-off of Canadian corporations, stuff like that - then "demystifying" the SPP by "selling the virtues" to us will just be more of the same fucking.crock.

Everything was going just swimmingly until...

Non-violence best answer, Dalai Lama says

"Avoiding violence in places like Afghanistan and Iraq is the best way to counter the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Dalai Lama said before meeting the prime minister in Ottawa on Monday.
Speaking on the second day of his visit to Canada, the spiritual leader of Tibet said he would tell Stephen Harper, if the subject were to come up, that “using violence to counter violence” can exacerbate problems.

“I always believe non-violence is the best way to solve problems,” he said in response to reporters' questions about Canada's role in Afghanistan.

A clearly uncomfortable Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney stood close by, trying to interrupt without success and tugging at the holy man's elbow."

Tugging at the holy man's elbow? That's really classy, Jason.
Regular readers will recall Jason came this close to winning the coverted Certificate of Hitlertude just this past February.

Portraits of America

U.S. annexes Canadian landmark in tourism video

A Disney promo video highlighting "majestic American landscapes" features the Horseshoe Falls, a portion of the Niagara Falls found entirely within Canada, instead of the two falls on the American side of the border.

The vid was released by the US State Dept and Homeland Security to be shown at airports and US embassies abroad.

Disney chair Jay Rasulo "speaks over the falls footage about the importance of showing would-be tourists "the great sites, the great vistas that they dream about all their lives when they dream about America."

Two things :

1) We should be grateful they didn't include the mounties, and

2) Looking at the promotion poster for "Portraits of America", I'm not sure it was advisable to include a picture of what appears to be a white guy wearing a black man for a hat.

Just sayin'.

Hillier's ten years

The Star Oct 25 : 10 more years for Afghan security, says Hillier

Huge stink. Why? Because here in Canada we choose to forget this is an American war.

CBS News Oct 7 : "Six years after the first U.S. bombs began falling on Afghanistan's Taliban government and its al Qaeda guests, America is planning for a long stay. Originally envisioned as a temporary home for invading U.S. forces, the sprawling American base at Bagram, a former Soviet outpost in the shadow of the towering Hindu Kush mountains, is growing in size by nearly a third."
U.S. Army Col. Jonathan Ives : "Our commitment to them is really saying we will be here until you have the security and stability that allows you to be a developing country on your own, and if that's 10 years then it's 10 years."

So there you have it : Hillier's ten years.

There were tens of us...

I hate protest rallies.

I hate the boring repetitive speeches, the completely off-topic signs from supporters of other causes, the waiting, the not high enough numbers, and the songs dear god the songs!

But I'm going.

After I wrote something about Afghanistan a couple of years ago, I got a message from RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan - not a personal message, a reprinted one I think. It died with my old pooter but this is the part I remember :

"Thank you for your interest in our country and our fight for freedom.
Last week we held a protest outside the Ministry of Vice and Virtue.
There were tens of us. We are hopeful."

It was that "There were tens of us. We are hopeful."

I have to go every time now.

We can do it with hope.

We can do it without hope.

It only matters that we do it.

Events across Canada

Steve and Sandra - I am so the boss of you

Steve says 2011 in the throne speech.

Hillier says :"Afghanistan's army could need 10 years before it's in a position to fend for itself."

Dave says : "If anyone knows what it takes to train an army, it's Sandra Buckler."

In his non-retraction retraction, Hillier says : "I'm very clear on where the direction comes from. … We're on exactly the same page and I believe actually we see things exactly the same way."

He doesn't scale back to 2011; instead he implies that Harper also knows it will take another decade.

So either the war on Afghanistan is a bad idea and the sooner we get out the better, or the reconstruction is a good idea and we should stay till it's done. Picking the date 2011 merely fulfills our duty to NATO and has fuck all to do with what's good for Afghanistan.

Harper chooses gay superhero to be new symbol of Canada

Harper is going to take a certain amount of flack for choosing a gay francophone superhero from X-Men to be the new symbol of Canadian, uh, pride, but personally I think it's just terribly terribly bold of him.

G&M : "In a new bid to foster national pride and confidence in its leadership, the Stephen Harper government is urging Canadians to look up, look way up.
As the Conservatives search for a more inspirational way to deliver their message and replace the worn-out catchphrase "Canada's New Government," the lobbyists and strategists who deliver the government line were told after last week's Throne Speech to make use of a reference to the North Star that showed up toward the end of the speech.

"To help you effectively communicate with your local media, as well as your constituents, we have included general messaging on the Speech from the Throne," says a PMO memo obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Among the elements of the Throne Speech that the memo urges them to highlight, the first is this lyrical passage: "Like the North Star, Canada has been a guide to other nations..."

The memo does not say specifically how the strategists should use the reference."

Oh come on, strategists, how tough is that?
According to wikipedia, NorthStar is a Quebecois superhero who first joins the Front de Libération du Québec to gain Quebec independence but soon sees the error of his ways and renounces terrorism to join Alpha Flight, a superhero group financed by the Canadian government.
His X-Men bio divulges that in addition to being a world class Olympic skier who makes his home at the north pole, NorthStar is also a martial arts master, a trapeze artist, and an accomplished novelist.
Now what could be more Canadian than that?

"Sources have told The Globe that the North Star terminology was to have been peppered throughout the speech, rather than just at the end.
"When you're following the North Star you're always going in the right direction," said the source in explaining its appeal."

As Impolitical says : Must ...repeat...North...Star....

$1400 a day?! ....Each?

The newly appointed five-member Independent Panel on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan, aka the Panel of Hawks, Deep Integrationists, ...and One Homophobe, appointed by Harper to advise parliament on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan four days before he informed us Canada will be staying till 2011 anyway if he has anything to say about it, will not be going it alone.

They will have minders. Six of them.
An appointed secretariat of six senior government officials will 'facilitate' for the Independent Panel. Three of them are from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, one is from CIDA, one is from the Afghanistan Task Force, and one is the former deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the shadow panel downplays the effect that being advised by the same government officials who have been overseeing the Afghanistan mission up till now might have on the official panel's independence :
"they are very independent thinkers and extremely accomplished and extremely worldly. I don't think anyone's presence here could influence them in any way, shape or form."

Over at Embassy Mag, Paul Hughes, chair of one of the four working groups on the American Iraq Study Group, patiently explains at length how complete independence is required in order for the panel's findings to be considered credible.
"If it comes across as a partisan document, people will treat it as a partisan document and not give it due deference," Mr. Hughes said.
Yeah, like we had complete confidence in them before.
And then there's this:
"The spokesperson said the panelists, who it has been reported will be paid between $850-$1,400 per day for their work through to March 31, 2008, will aim for full transparency."

Full transparency? For $1400 a day I expect they can become completely invisible.

Malalai Joya to speak at Vancouver rally

Bring the Troops Home Now
Pan-Canadian Day of Action
Against War: October 27
In Vancouver :
Gather at Waterfront Station
12 Noon for Rally at 2pm
at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Featured speakers will include Malalai Joya.

In Victoria the rally will be held at 1pm Oct 28 at the Cenotaph
Malalai Joya will speak there too.

For other cities : more event listings

Bloodletting

You know the part in the movie where the the doctor is doing everything he can to save the wounded hero. This being a movie set in the Middle Ages, the cure consists mostly of copious amounts of bloodletting. Oh no, you think, that isn't gonna work. But you don't blame the doctor because he's doing the very best he can with the knowledge he has at the time.
That scene would play somewhat less sympathetically towards the doctor if the movie was set in the 20th century.

Canada in Afghanistan : When Myopia Becomes a Crime
Michael Neumann

"For many Canadian partisans of The Mission in Afghanistan, Canada is just fighting the good fight. Their attitudes are curiously anachronistic, as if our boys have gone off to stick it to Jerry. There are yellow-ribbon support-our-troops stickers on many cars; there’s home town pride. Embedded correspondents produce little more than a stream of human interest pieces, as if Afghanistan was some enormous Katrina aftermath.
continued.....

Thanks to ReWind.It at Bread and Roses.