Profit vs. People

School Cafeteria Food?? You Call That Food???

2009-02-21T10:20:00.002-08:00

This morning, I opened my e-mail to another video from the Real News Network. Lately these videos have been about our wars overseas, our foreign policy, and yes, the failing economy. But this morning, much to my delight, the news network was featuring a story on one of my favourite topics... FOOD!

I'm to going to go into some long schpeel about this or that, but once again, it's profits over people, and we the people must suffer in order for the big corporations to make larger and larger profits. In case you're wondering why your kids just don't seem to dig on healthy food choices, maybe you should ask yourself what sorts of food choices the government has made available to them in our public schools!

Here's the vid, so check it out:

We're Back!!

2009-01-22T00:16:00.003-08:00

Hello all you loyal peopleparty fans! We've been away from the virtual world for some time now, knee deep in the real one... from bush whacking to job hunting, we've been beatin' the streets and drifting off the beaten path...

We have LOTS of stories and stuff in the works for all of you. For real.

But before we launch into another great year, I personally need to get a job... I'm completely jobless and broke right now. Sucks. What really sucks is that there are some real idiots out there who want to prey on people like me (and YOU), all desperate and looking for work, wondering how we're going to feed the kids...

There are fraudsters out there posing as employers, and a lot of people are becoming vicitms. I almost became one myself! But thanks to my new friends (you know who you are you awesome bunch of people!), we've managed to rid our city of one of these predators! Thanks also to Global news for actually coming out, and to the Vancouver Police Department for the backup...
Props to ya. (And that means ALOT coming from us....)

And if any of you out there want to employ me or my super awesome highly cool new friends, drop us a line, here or on the YouTube channel!

So now click on the vid below and see exactly how we handled this hustler. (This is some reality TV people, for real).

And for those of you that have dealth with this guy and given him either money or your info, you need to contact VPD non-emergency at 604-717-3321. Or report the crime online at
www.recol.ca

Some Thoughts on Canada Day

2007-07-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know about any of you out there, but I personally hate patriotic celebrations that force us to participate more heavily in our already overconsumptive way of life. So here are a few artistic items ALL ABOUT ME, BY ME, FOR ME - in retaliation for the groupthink that seems to take over in early July (here and stateside). Hope you enjoy...

(my pain it seems is always masquerading as anger. This way, if it's poked and prodded by others, it just explodes instead of throbbing away at my dignity)

void
life's edges are so raw right now -
exposed nerves
i'll get through it all somehow
i deserve
is a bad attitude to hold
at times
without gratitude it's cold.
these lines
in my brow are very deep.
don't know
is it mine to hold, maybe to keep?
i'll go
it's better that than have it trashed
and destroyed
it all happened too fast
just a void
all that's left there just a space
crazy times,
maybe someday i'll find a place.

the masters
i'm waiting for a phone call from jesus,
and when it comes boy, it's gonna clear the air,
and yes, he will call when he pleases,
no one ever said that life was fair.
i'm waiting for a phone call from jesus,
or at least a nod on msn,
i've been told many times our lord sees us,
we're made in his image all us men.

killing, spilling,
screaming, feening,
hoarding, gorging,
taking, raping,
we are masters of our place
yes we are the human race.

grabbing, jabbing,
foolish, droolish,
brawling, sprawling,
swelling, yelling,
we are masters of our place
yes we are the human race.

have you?
have you always been this coward?
this scared and pitiful boy?
is this why you play with people?
like your little inanimate toys?
does it make you feel grown up?
when you run lives like a show?
how many have you hurt like this?
how many left to go?
too big to say i'm sorry and too small to confess,
too scared to stay and watch while we clean up the mess.
too selfish not to want to always have a part,
seems you never finish anything you start.

Good and Cheesy (But it's Not Velveeta)

2007-06-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so two of my "friends" on youtube sent me the same video, the same day. I gave it a watch and found it amusing in the most sick and twisted sort of way... nice fish!
But seriously folks, although this little vid is a cartoon, the content is serious business, and more people should be aware of the questionable ethics of our so-called information providers.

So here's the vid:

And if that left you wanting more information, a while back I went a litte nuts on understanding our media systems here in Canada, and wrote a few long-winded blog posts detailing my findings for the rest of the uninterested world. Maybe if I made a movie about what I learned, someone might care... but for those of you who are still into a good long read, here are the links to those posts:

http://thepeopleparty.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

http://thepeopleparty.blogspot.com/2006/06/spoonfed-by-derek-burney.html

Not So Refreshing After All...

2007-06-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

To all you pop drinkers out there from all of us over here at the people party, we'd like you to stop what you're doing, 'cause you're about to ruin, that body and that image that you're used to! For real!

Today, we'll give you a bit of information on sodium benzoate and asparatame, only two little ingredients in a large chemical cocktail these big sugar retailers like to call refreshment.

This post was inspired by a friend of ours whom we meet with twice a week at martial arts class. Being that this individual is a minor, and still has time to change his cancer causing ways, we won't mention his name, but he knows who he is... sipping on that "Zero" every day after practice. We're only telling you these things because we love you buddy, no other reason. So watch these vids, and see if you still wanna suck on that can after class.

Still not convinced? Check out these new items that we found on the net

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2586652.ece

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=269520

Operation Mc Kill You

2007-06-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right folks! We've been promising some local action for a long time, and finally, here it is! Released just in time for the summer. And you guessed it, there's plenty more where this came from - it's just all in the works. So yeah, watch the vid and try to keep your jealousy to a dull roar - it's not our fault we're this cool!

Until next time, stir up some of your own trouble and stay tuned to the peopleparty for for fun times, fantastic ideas, and insightful information...

Starbucks: This Ain't No Double-Double... (but it is kind of)

2007-06-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Salutations to all you perusers of web pages and surfers of cyberspace. I was just about to hit up the local Starbucks for my afternoon fix of human contact, when I remembered there are reasons, good reasons, for me to stop supporting this nasty chain of (third world blood sucking -contrived human relationship providing - give me some sugar so I can think)coffee providers!

Gawd. I dunno if I can do it folks - this may be my last chance at physical contact today - someone might actually brush my hand as they pass me my change! Better watch a movie about Ethiopian coffee farmers, maybe that'll help my morality kick in!

Too bad I don't have enough coin for a plane ticket... they seem like my kind of people over there in Ethiopia. Maybe I wouldn't have to dish out three dollars and something just to have a taste of contrived and cultured social interaction in Ethiopia. (3$ and something is what a grande coffee costs, with room for cream and two cinnamon straws on the side...) Mmmmm. Cinnamon staws...

Suddenly I feel very hungry! Maybe it'll help to listen to Alex Jones yap for ten minutes about what we already suspected about Starbucks... Yeah, yeah yeah, call it conspiracy theory if you like, but have you ever checked the mural out in the Starbucks in downtown Vancouver? Next time you walk into your local java joint, why don't you check the corporate art on the walls, and see how smart you feel as you sip on your over-priced latte while those that manipulate you, mock you with their corporate art in the very places you patronize, in the very places that you meet your friends and share intimate moments. While you connect and sip the blood of the third world, you are being mocked for not knowing, for being stupid. Anyone care for a cappucino?

Symbology of the Elite

2007-05-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

The word symbology comes from one of my favourite films, "Boondock Saints", and if you haven't seen the film yet, you might want to.

This video posting is to bring awareness to those that have none; of the symbology of the elite, aka the illuminati. Check it out - the dance track in the background might not be your flavour, but what really is these days? I can't even have an ice cream without getting my colon attacked by large goopy mounds of carageenan! Hell! (Now tell me that isn't a part of their plan... an entire continent of baby boomers afflicted with butt cancer! More on that later, but for now, back to the vid...)

Yeah, it's just kind of intersting for those of us who like to theorize on conspiracy, for those of us who don't refuse to see the truth...

And yes, like I said, we'll be coming at you real soon with some heavily local shit that'll have you wishing you were more like us! But, there are other things to attend to besides this virutal reality. Have you nurtured your REAL human relationships lately? Until next time you cyber dependent anti-social inhuman products of a corporate culture...

Bye for now.

The Ghastly Molecule of War Corporatism

2007-04-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

I liked this little vid because of the colours and the funny English voice, and of course for many other reasons, but it's a good Saturday flick with a nice colour scheme.

We over here at the peopleparty understand we've been a little lacking when it comes to keeping the posts frequent and current, but there's more to life than virtual reality! We'll be coming at you soon with some interesting, personal, local, creative stuff that'll have you washing your own mess out of your socks! (this means you'll love the new stuff so much that you will literally crap your pants...)

Anyway, enjoy the vid, and we'll be back soon.

What's With the Drug War, Man?

2007-04-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

This little vid is quite the expose of the CIA, and their involvement in some highly clandestine activities. Seems like it's not just the dealers who are keeping their eye on the prize...

Enjoy.

Lest We Forget...

2007-04-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

In 1917 Canadian soldiers fought a battle in Vimy Ridge, on the coast of France, a moment that was to forever mark the nation’s formation. Ninety years later, on this Easter Monday, veterans and diplomats gather to restore a monument to remember the sacrifices of these brave men and women who fought so selflessly to ensure that we, years later, can enjoy the democracy, justice and human rights that our nation has come to exemplify. Along side the stiff salutes, the decorated soldiers, the wreaths, the uniforms and speeches of glory, self-congratulatory expression and mourning, come a reminder that our great cause of fighting the evils abroad has not yet come to an end, as 6 soldiers have just perished in Afghanistan in recent days. These 6 soldiers, all male and all white, in their early 20s are constructed to represent the courageous and honorable fabric that constitutes our nation, as well as a testimony to our willingness to sacrifice our own sons to the service of the values that uphold this proud land.

As the CBC’s syndication of these momentous events in France comes to a conclusion, we are taken to Halifax where foreign affairs minister Peter McKay speaks of commemorating the sacrifice of others, including those who were recently killed in Afghanistan who come “to do good” when “those in need call.” The ghostly white faces of those crippled in service and wrinkled with the hands of time peer out behind him, their red poppies bleeding on their blazers and military jackets. What a great fucking national gesture to celebrate those who truly exemplify the ideals of our free nation. Unfortunately, however, upon further investigation, it appears that there are a few things that have eluded our national memories on this early April remembrance day party…

What exactly do such events of national/international remembering do for a country like Canada, besides the novelty of being able to rock poppies in the spring? When we acknowledge the First World War battle of Vimy Ridge as the moment in which Canada became a nation in its own right, what are we truly saying? First of all, such a notion challenges the ability with which we can declare ourselves as a peaceful nation. How is it not hypocritical that a nation that prides itself with its commitment to peace, can only come into being with the exercise of state-sponsored violence? Moreover, the fact that Canada understands itself as a “peacekeeping nation” that as McKay claims, heroically comes to the need of those imperiled countries abroad becomes highly problematic once we look into what Canada’s military truly does around the world. Let’s just take Somalia as an example; in the early 1990s, Canadian peacekeepers landed in Somalia under a UN mandate to provide peace and security outside the nation’s capital. During their short stay they engaged in a number of racist violent acts. Commonly referred to as “Operation Snatch Niggers,” the soldiers from various ranks condoned the use of violence and torture on a regular basis. Poor, unarmed civilians who veered too close to the perimeter of the base were shot at in close range. Moreover, the soldiers would plant bait in the form of food and water near the base in order to trap civilians, one of whom was Arone Shidane, a 16 year old Somali teen that was tortured and beaten to death by Canadian troops [see Sherene Razack’s book “Dark Threats and White Knights” to read more about this]. This is not a one off incident, as similar human rights abuses against civilians by Canadian Soldiers were found in Bosnia, Kuwait, and Haiti, just to name a few.

[http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/UN/peace.html]

The glorified ceremonious gestures of remembrance seek to forget such violence and instead construct Canada, and Canadians as a nation of benevolent, kind hearted, peace-loving people that selflessly give their lives for causes of goodness. Moreover, it hides the immense injustices at home that perpetually pervade our everyday experiences. The reason why acts of violence can be so constantly exercised by Canadian soldiers upon the bodies of Third World peoples abroad is because of the ideology of racism and white supremacy that flourish at home. One manifestation of this ideology can be seen in the very celebration of Vimy Ridge itself, as the battle that gave birth to the nation of Canada. This selective remembering seeks to erase the violent reality that actually fostered the nation-building process. The fact that Canada was founded upon the genocidal murder, rape, mutilation and capture of thousands of original inhabitants, only to be followed by their mandatory segregation and internment through the residential school system, reservation projects and criminal incarceration, is something that is conveniently extracted from the national narrative. In the forgetting of this history, Canada becomes imagined as a nation of white inhabitants who magnanimously not only let in Third World immigrants to baby-sit their children, drive their taxis and scrub their toilets, but also fly to far away lands to fight their battles for them.

The restoration of the monument in Vimy Ridge, therefore, does more than remember the fallen soldiers of the past. As said by Stephen Harper himself, every nation has a creation story to tell and the battle of Vimy Ridge is central to how we know ourselves as Canadians. It is unfortunately also how we also forget ourselves as Canadians, and consequently reinforce the very ideals that we claim to stand against. As we continue to wage wars in faraway lands, I think it is important that we deconstruct the meanings behind each national gesture lest we forget the suffering and violence that truly keep Canada the “free and democratic” nation it is today.

Intolerance

2007-03-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

This is a clip from the television "reality" show Trading Spouses. In this particular clip Margaret is coming home from spending a week with her new temporary spouse. I guess it should be said that the other family in this televised experiment is black(African American).

Margaret, the main character, is severely distressed. Maybe its because of her temporary spouse who was depicted as generally unkind to her. However, i don't think this was the root of her angst. Margaret, although polite, seemed extremely uncomfortable with the adventure outside of her comfort zone/home. I think the swap was uncomfortable because of mutual bigotry and a difference in lifestyle and beliefs. Maybe i'm wrong. Why can't people just get along?

Is she delusional or is she really a warrior of god fighting ungodly "darksided" people? Is she ignorant or enlightened? Is her reaction to the relatively benign experience she had a result of peoples ideologies, dogmas, and fears? Why are these differences so unacceptable to her? Could her religion cause fear and intolerance? Could a religion stop someone from the mental and emotional evolution that usually comes with the acceptance of differences? Can differences be enlightening when they are explored with accepting open-minds? Could it be that differences aren't explored because of overriding dogmas? Can dogma make people perceive relatively insignificant difference as abomination that needs to be destroyed? Do overriding dogmas cause fear and consequent divisions? Finally, why is margaret religious? If we can answer the above questions maybe we can determine where Margaret's torment come from?

For some reason I doubt the gastric bypass she was granted is going to help Margaret. However, it may give her a false sense of self control for awhile. I have full empathy for the people who can't control their appetite, but their lack of control is not because their stomach is to big. I thnk margaret is barking up the wrong tree.

The Real is Really Unreal?

2007-03-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

Just a little video that calls into question the roll of religion in the world. It suggests that through the ages gods have been accepted as truth with the promoted belief in the virtue and sanctity of faith. Furthermore, it implies that religions(institutionalized beliefs) are constructs of man that can be usurped or precipitated, embellished and changed as seen necessary by the disproportionately privileged (ultra-elite) to maintain social order and build empire. Moreover, it causes one to think that modern gods are simply the most familiar face and disposition (human) imposed on the realm of the unknown and unexplained for arrogant egotistical reasons. It also suggests that some gods were made by man in the image of man for the sake of men rather than man being made by god in the image of god for the sake of god. Could it be the ultimate tool crafted and maintained(maybe stumbled upon) by ruling conspirators to manufacture and pray on humanities biggest insecurities in order to create a state of universal stratification and the consequent artificial chaos that follows? Is this artificial chaos then governed and controlled by the same enlightened rulers for the supposed benefit of the people by appropriately appointed, obediently conservative agents? Indeed, a mass conspiracy without merit or the cap stone of a pyramid called realism?
Maybe, authority coupled with faith is the root of humanities anguish and stagnation. Couldn’t faith be interpreted as “the firm belief in something for which you have no proof”? Moreover, couldn’t indoctrination be a way of building and maintaining empires by populating it with unquestioning, fearful, dutiful servants? Nietzsche once said that faith means not wanting to know. Faith is 'don't let those pesky facts get in the way of our political plan or our mystically ordained path to heaven'. Indoctrination could easily be seen as the quintessential form of manipulation, control, and deceit. Who is indoctrinating us: a God or people in positions of authority? Who is really governing us: God or people in positions of authority? I guess your answer depends on the extent of your faith. The good thing about answering questions with the guidance of religion is it always seems to provoke a considerably more palatable answer. An answer that doesn't evoke change.

Ted Haggard's Confession

2007-03-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

We thought we'd take a little break from the science of pharmaceuticals and get a little religious on you for a minute. We first met Mr. Haggard, (the star of this little vid) when he was interviewed by Richard Dawkins in his most stellar documentary, "The Root of All Evil". (This, by the way, is definitely a flick you need to check out!) Needless to say, Mr. Haggard has always professed to be "a man of God", and it just makes us giggle to watch him in his SUV as he explains his most ungodly actions...

Sloth: Perfectra

2007-03-07T23:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you without a sense of humor, please find a new blog to visit for today. This little vid we found to be quite funny, and we all need to laugh now and again, so enjoy this flick!

Cartoon Spoof On Drug Company Propaganda

2007-03-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay, so we slacked a little last week! We didn't quite finish posting all the tantalizing videos we've rounded up on pharmaceuticals for you, so here's another one on the same topic before we wrap it up. This video is slightly comical, but it's a great way to start a Monday on a not too serious note. Enjoy!

Cows With Guns

2007-03-04T23:53:00.000-08:00

Our weekend over here was great, so we thought we'd share the love, fun, and music with you, our viewers and readers. Hope you had a great weekend, and please enjoy this most amazing little vid. See you again on Monday...

Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety

2007-03-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

No one ever talks about the havoc that these corporate drug dealers cause! Well, until now anyway. This little vid is a bit about the profession of pill pushers here in North America, where there is about one pharamaceutical representative for every four doctors in the country.

We need to understand, that this is more than health care, this is profiteering. When large profits are involved, as is always the case, the consumer, the patient, is not the primary concern, the profits are.

Four Year Old Girl Dies From Overdose of Prescribed Antipsychotic Medication

2007-03-01T00:04:00.000-08:00

This story was in the news a while back, and it just serves to illustrate the lack of cognition that seems to be occuring among certain medical professionals and their conspirators in Big Pharma. How can we as a society be ok with stuff like this??

The Drugging of Our Children

2007-02-27T17:31:00.000-08:00

This little flick looks at the prevalence rates of childhood pill popping in relation to kids' inability to conform in school. Our society likes to create unnatural settings in which to "educate" children, and then sedate the same children they are "teaching" when those children don't conform to the rather restrictive standards in these unnatural environments. Maybe insead of trying to medicate our children to "work" with the current system of education, maybe the educational institution and our paradigm on education itself is what needs to change. The purpose of education and it's institutions is to serve humanity, not to force humanity to change itself in order to conform to the institution.

The Truth About Antidepressants

2007-02-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

This week on the blog, we're focusing in on pharmaceuticals. These corporations are some of the biggest profiteers on the planet, and because of this, the truth about their products isn't always easy to come by. Once again, our trust of these companies and our belief in the "cures" they proffer only serves to illustrate our subservience to authority, and our inability to think critically for ourselves. Stay tuned this week for more vids on these sinister pill pushers...

Norweigan Wood on Sunday

2007-02-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

We kinda felt that today wasn't much a day for thinking. Today we're busy feeling and doing, and what a better way to inspire others to do the same, than to throw a little Victor Wooten at you? Hope you enjoy your Sunday afternoon...

This Kid Sewed My Tracksuit?

2007-02-24T21:51:00.000-08:00

Most of us here in the Western world seldom stop to think about where the things that we purchase come from. Who are the craftspeople behind our merchandise? When you think about kids like this, making our clothing, somehow it just doesn't seem cool anymore.

Genetic Engineering On Children?

2007-02-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, well, once again we're posting something that originally appeared on television on a program that we pretty much reject. Regardless, I thought it was a little bit interesting, so I'm posting it.

Hmmm... and as a side note, there might be some of you out there trying to view our blog using "safari" as your browser... for some reason, this is not sufficient. Try switching to "firefox" if you're having trouble seeing all the postings, and that should do the trick.

Communist Manifesto Illustrated by Cartoons

2007-02-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

This is interesting and insightful... once again, cartoons have a way of allowing us to process information which we otherwise might not consider.

And as a side note to the watchers of this blog, please understand that we're hard at work on some original productions over here, and we'll release them as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears on thepeopleparty for all your ignorance killing needs!

Enjoy the cartoon...

Environmental Toxins

2007-02-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, this clip comes from FOX news, but it's a good introduction to the things that are actually floating all around out there!

Sam Suds and the Case of PVC: The Poison Plastic

2007-02-19T17:21:00.000-08:00

Bratz Dolls in a Chinese Sweatshop

2007-02-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Noam Chomsky on Human Destiny

2007-02-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

This man has written a lot of good books, and given a lot of good speeches. This is just a short one that really illustrates the challenges facing humanity in today's modern world. If you like this video, check out his book "Imperial Ambitions"- it's a good read...

Backwards Hamburger

2007-02-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Cartoons are an excellent way to communicate possibly inflamatory ideas to people who otherwise might not appreciate such a different opinion. Stay tuned to the blog... we've got a few more toons coming up in the future...

Contaminated...

2007-02-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is another short flick about the things that are happening to our food supply without our awareness.

Spy Chips: Electronic Surveillance That is Happening NOW

2007-02-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

It's rather obvious that corporations like to keep a lot of secrets from consumers, and this is just another one, that just happened to get out. I've been trying to explain these things to my friends for a long time now, so hopefully this video will help them to understand this fact a little bit more. Creepy...

Child Labour and Your Clothing

2007-02-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is a video about a girl who sews Hanes products. In the film, she is interviewed and asked questions about working conditions in her factory. Many of us would rather ignore the fact that a child on the other side of the world pays the hard price for our good life, our easy deals at Walmart and Zellers, but this is the case.

Genetically Modified Foods...

2007-02-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

This is an older video from a CBC newscast that explores the idea of GMO foods, and our awareness of them. Canada's relationship with these corporate seed giants such as Monsanto and Syngenta is rather close, and these companies have insinuated themselves not only in our farms, and on our kitchen tables, but also in our schools. Currently they use their profits to fund research at some of our most prestigious universities, including UBC.

If this little news bit is not enough information for you, get a hold of the film, "The Future of Food", and independent flick which is a must see for anyone concerned with what they're putting in their mouths.

What Iraqis Think About Americans...

2007-02-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

As a Canadian, I wonder what Afghani people would have to say about us?

Obesity P.S.A

2007-02-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

This is absolutely hilarious, and kudos to the obese man who helped in the making of this film...

And this is not to say that we endorse smoking - we don't - but it's definitely not the only serious social ailment that affects our society, as this little short helps to illustrate..

America: From Freedom to Fascism

2007-02-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

We haven't added any new videos lately, but here's a good one if you have an hour or so. The subject matter is more applicable to Americans, but it can be appreciated and understood by all of us here in North America who are forced to pay taxes.

Enjoy.

The Christmas Con

2006-12-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

Our First Video Release - Just in Time for the Holidays!

2006-12-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

THE CHRISTMAS CON

A Little Bit About It...

All of us here at the blog are very proud to announce the release of our first blog video! It’s a Christmas message from us to you, and we hope that it stirs some emotion, stimulates thought and conversation among family and friends...

It was a collaborative effort, and many individuals were involved in the making of this film - a lot of whom may not know they were involved at all... No worries though - it’s a personal thing, so read those little credits at the end of the movie, and let us know what you think!!

The following films were the ones we liked best that we used in the making of “Christmas Con”

Earthlings, Big Sugar, Surplus, The War Tapes, The End of Suburbia.

Find links to these films (and more) in the sidebar of our blog.

Social Contradictions: A Curriculum of Killing in Canadian Schools

2006-12-19T20:36:00.000-08:00

Recently we’ve been examining some of the many social contradictions that are provided to us by the policy makers and institutions of our nation. One of the most recent, acutely relevant, and highly controversial contradictions to surface is that of the increased presence of the Canadian military in our high schools.

It’s relatively clear (see article entitled “Ten Things You Thought You Knew About Canada and Other Stuff No One Wants You to Know”) that Canada’s “volunteer” army, much like that of the United States, is aimed at recruiting poor youth who have few options in their communities and particular social demographic for any sort of real opportunity in life. Targeting the poor and minority communities, the military institutions of North America are working to fill their ranks with able-bodied young men and women that are prepared to do anything to succeed, including die.

The popular perception of a military career is based upon the illusions of prestige, power, respect, and duty. A sense of heroism permeates the fabric of the military, and those that die are seen as true “heroes” who die “fighting for freedom”. This fantasy is what draws many into the ranks in the first place. It’s an institution in which your apparent integrity, bravery, and dedication are rewarded with economic security and external respect. This could not be further from the truth.

(Don't take our word for it, check out films 15 and 16, at this link)
http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/#

The fact remains that the duty of a soldier is to kill. They are trained to use firearms, to respond unquestioningly to commands, and to be unapologetically subservient to the whims of their masters. The military institution rewards conformity and lack of thought - it rewards brutal violence and a general disregard for human life. In exchange for their lives and minds, soldiers are rewarded with the promise of economic security and the chance at a hero’s death in the desert of a foreign land. (Digression: Although Canada appears to honor it’s military members with job security, many Canadians beg to differ. Check out the opinion of Lee Prokaska of The Hamilton Spectator, who argues that there is no real job security for Canada’s reservists.

Click on this link to read the article...
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com

For years it seemed that the Canadian military would be forever a body of peacekeepers, deployed on humanitarian missions throughout the developing world. With the dawn of the Harper administration, the Canadian military purpose drastically changed in direction and intent, and veered off into being a somewhat bellicose body. Aligning ourselves with the policies and actions of our southern neighbors, our country is headed along the same foreboding road towards a military industrial complex that will inevitably claim the lives of countless human beings around the world.

The political and military tactics of the United States have been questioned and even condemned the world over. (At this point, I would encourage you watch the movie “What I’ve Learned About American Foreign Policy” if you lack knowledge in regards to the worldwide terror the US has unleashed on this planet to date....)

WATCH THE MOVIE HERE...

With General Rick Hiller at Harper’s side, it’s hard not to see Canada as a US lapdog, but this isn’t just an accusation, this is something that the Defence Department and the Canadian government outwardly acknowledge in their “Defence Strategy 2020”. There’s a special part of this strategy, entitled “Special Relationships with Principle Allies” which states:
“Our most important ally now and for the future is the United States where our strong relationship has long benefited both countries. We must plan to nurture this relationship by strengthening our inter-operability with the US Armed Forces, training together, sharing the burden for global sensing and telecommunications and pursuing collaborative ways to respond to emerging asymmetric threats to continental security.”

(For a close look at Canada’s “Defence Strategy 2020, see the following website...)
http://www.cds.forces.gc.ca/pubs/strategy2k/s2k07_e.asp

It seems as if our government and our military general see nothing but positivity in the actions taken by the United States in their “war on terror”. Canada, walking proudly, hand in hand with a nation that is seen as a murderer and a rapist the world over.

Cleaning Military House
A 2006 status report released by the Auditor General of Canada in regards to the efficacy of the National Defense Department and their endeavors at military recruiting and retention, states that there seems to be “a low interest among Canadian youth in joining the military, and increasing military operational demands [demonstrate] the current recruiting system is not supporting the needs of Canadian Forces”. The report goes on to explain why the military shortage is so pressing - new foreign commitments, an aging current force, numerous unfilled positions within the institution, and the never-ending expansion of the “war on terror”. The department stated in their report that they were “concerned that the number of recruits is barely replacing the members leaving”.
(to view the full report see: http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/20060502ce.html

The Canadian Forces recognizes that their target market is changing. “A National Defence survey of this specific target group (Canadians aged 16-34 who are physically fit) indicated that only 6% were interested in joining the Regular Force, although about 30% said they would consider joining if their education was paid for or if they were offered an entry bonus”. The report also recognizes that “young Canadians from visible minorities are becoming an increasing portion of the population” and it recognizes the “need to recruit young women and young Canadians from Aboriginal and visible minority groups. It’s not surprising that this darker sector of 16-34 year olds is also among the most likely to obtain student loans in order to finance their post secondary education, as they are among Canada’s most impoverished. Entry bonuses and free education are music to this demographic’s ears.

According to head of Canada’s air force, the recent $17 billion dollar spending blitz on new military glitz “will help attract young people toward military careers” by helping to “counter public perception that the air force’s equipment is old and not up to the job”. Lt.General Steve Lucas, in an interview with Canadian Press (July 6, 2006), also outlined some “initiatives [that] are underway to attract and keep more people in the armed forces... includ[ing] processing new recruits more quickly and even loosening some long-standing rules about body size, in some cases opening up occupations that were previously closed to women”.

General Rick Hillier and his famous quote: “We are the Canadian Armed Forces. Our job is to kill people”

Getting Them While They’re Young

According to Carleton’s Capital News, “the Canadian forces wants to increase its regular force by 13,000 soldiers to about 75,000, and is also looking to raise the number of reserves by 10,000 to 40,000 over the next few years”. These are big expectations for a country not really known for it’s military prowess. How to garner from a peace keeping nation the number of trained executioners need to support this international “war on terror”?

The auditor general’s report on the status of the Canadian military concluded that it has “shown some satisfactory improvement in recruiting the military personnel it needs to meet it’s operational requirements” but “[t]he Department has not been able to improve it’s recruiting of Aboriginal people, visible minorities, or women” since the last audit. Although the Department has “carrie[d] out studies on the demographics of the Canadian labour force, is promoting diversity, and is spending $1.5 million on diversity recruiting, these efforts are not achieving results”.

The Canadian military is thus currently faced with the huge task of drastically increasing it’s numbers by extracting from what seems to be an unwilling population. The military department knows it will require ingenuity and creativity in order to create the number of soldiers it needs in the near future, and as such, they are embarking on interesting new measures throughout high schools across the nation.

One of the most controversial of these measures is the introduction of a high school co-op program, in which children in Grade 10 and up can earn money while they learn to kill people, which is exactly what General Rick Hillier needs them to do. In many public school boards across the nation, the military co-op plan has been instituted in our secondary schools. Our children are encouraged to join the reserves as a part of their educational curriculum, for which they will earn high school credits, extra cash, and health and dental benefits.

In many high schools here in Canada, the rules governing co-op placements as educational programs stipulate that no program should pay the students to enlist, eliminating incentive biases. The Canadian military was able to sidestep that stipulation. Apparently the military goals of our country are more important that the educational standards in our public schools.
Yet Another Social Contradiction...

There was a time shortly after Columbine, when North America was reeling from the effects of guns in their schools. Canadian education, for decades, has stressed conflict resolution without the use of violence. Some schools even ban the game “Red Rover” because of the level of physical “aggression” the game requires. The current “Safe Schools Act”, a code of conduct whose purpose is to “encourage the use of nonviolent means to resolve conflict”, seems contradictory to the message our General Rick Hillier feeds the nation.

In Canada we have never tolerated guns on our streets, particularly in the hands of our children, or in the halls of our schools. Our educational system has always had focused on the acceptance of diversity and the dangers of racism, and it has worked hard to prevent and deter violence in schools through numerous measures including locker searches and educational programs. Why is it, that our children, are now suddenly subjected to the mentality of the military? Since when did we as a people decide that 14 year olds ought to throw grenades, shoot rifles, play war games, and learn to kill people? Since when was basic training considered public education? We shame and condemn other countries who use their children as soldiers, but are we any different?

According to the Women in Black, there are “overwhelming enticements and pressures on youth who do not have the resources for higher education and look to this option. This plays into an insidious underlying focus on vulnerable youth of a certain socioeconomic and racial stratification...”.

It’s not like kids who want a chance to get military training and shoot rifles with the big boys can’t - there’s always been cadets and Naval Reserves for youth who wish to involve themselves in it. They are already able to receive training (after school, weekends, and summers) and get paid for it, so why permeate our public schools? “Why is the school board acting as a broker for the military?” ask the Women in Black, “Is enticing students into a military co-op program bring monies into the school board’s coffers? Are our students being used as commodities for budget purposes?”

These are tough questioned that have yet to be answered, and have not even been acknowledged by the mainstream media. Although many numerous and disturbing questions remain unanswered, there are a few things that are infinitely clear:

1) Rich kids don’t join the reserves, they don’t join the regular forces. They go off to large private institutions where their parents pay for their post-secondary education, and they are not in need of a summer job.

2) The video game market demonstrates that our teenagers get a kick our of games like “Medal of Honor” and “Full Metal Jacket”. Kids who like these sort of games would love to try out the real thing and get paid for it, especially if it was a part of going to school.

3) The military is in desperate need of new members, members that will stay on long enough to make their paid training and education a benefit to the Canadian military, who foot the bill. As such, those who enlist now are faced with longer terms of service and tighter contracts.

4) The Canadian military is investing millions of dollars into targeted advertising that is meant to catch the attention of impoverished or underprivileged individuals. Not only is this campaign integrated into local media and the public landscape, it has been directly implanted in high schools all across the country. This was done quietly, with little fanfare and no consideration of public opinion.

5) People who go to war, go to war to kill and die. If you do not see your child as a killer, nor would you be happy seeing him or her dead, tell your local school about how you feel.

Quote...

2006-12-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

"I still think today as yesterday that the color line is a great problem of this century. But today I see more clearly than yesterday that back of the problem of race and color, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance and disease of the majority of their fellowmen; that to maintian this privilege men have waged war until today war tends to become universal and continuous, and the excuse for this war continues largely to be color and race."

W.E.B. Du Bois, Preface to new edition of The Souls of Black Folk (1953)

Finally an intelligent opinion...

2006-08-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

Social Contradicitions: Crack Pipes in the Corner Store

2006-06-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

By Keetah Bryant (FRL)

In the past, as I’ve stood at the check-out at the average corner store, I would ponder over the little roses in glass tubes, wondering who on earth would buy such things. ($2 for a stupid little rose? These were my thoughts). I verbalized this thought one day to my sister as we were buying drinks for our kids.

“Those are crack pipes, not roses...” She looked at me as if I were dumb. “They sell little bags of steel wool too,” she said as she motioned towards the plastic sacs tacked to the wall. Fifty cents. She later explained to me that drug addicts can make a pipe for smoking their drugs, just from a few things that can be purchased at the corner store. I was shocked. The fact that someone had taken the trouble to tear steel wool into little tiny bits, shove those bits into little bags, and then sell those for a profit to people who are desperately using crack, made me sick.

Find a market, sell them what they want. The capitalist profit-centered attitude was prevalent even here, among the glass tubed roses and individual packets of steel wool.
I recently met a man whom I first came to know through the local paper. A concerned father who felt compelled to remove crack pipes from neighborhood convenience stores and other family-oriented places, Bob took his fight to the press, to the internet, and to the street. To this day, he and his organization, The Surrey Coalition of Parents, continue to press the community to make changes in policy that will prevent local merchants from selling drug paraphernalia in view of the seeing eyes of our children.

Do as We Say and Not as We Do

It’s not really surprising to anyone that Surrey has a large population of drug addicts - crack heads as they are affectionately called around these parts. Local police officers entice them to clean up their “camps” on hot days by offering them Slur-pees in return for their cleaning cooperation. Because of the prevalence of this problem in Surrey, the municipality is considering opening community drug courts and more drug treatment centers. Through experience and education, policy makers have come to understand that treating drug addiction as an illness rather than a criminal act is often much more effective for both the user and the larger community.

Regardless of the method of treatment, prevention is also a primary concern, particularly among the youth. Education is essential, as is setting a standard as a society that reflects our values in relation to crack use. Unfortunately, this two-tiered approach to prevention os far from being realized.

By selling drug paraphernalia next to the chocolate, it normalizes the merchandise, it makes it socially acceptable. More socially acceptable than even pornography magazines, that at least lay masked from small eyes, behind the counter. We as parents are expected to teach our children that crack is dangerous, and inappropriate for their consumption, yet everything you need to become a junkie (but the crack itself) is available at most local corner stores. What does that say about our social attitude towards using crack? What sorts of implications will this have for the efficacy of prevention education? No one ever listens to a known hypocrite, what would make future generations any different?

I’ve never been a believer in rules of any sort, and I personally would prefer simple anarchy. But what’s worse than rules and restrictions on personal freedom is the classic double standard which seems to be ubiquitously present in our society. The presence of the this double standard is most evident when there’s a conflict between profit and anything else that might stand in it’s way.

Fundamentally, and in this context, Bob and The Surrey Coalition of Parents have every right to expect better of their society. Given the obvious intolerance our society has towards illicit drug use (check out those mandatory minimum sentences Harper proposed for drug “offenders”...), it would logically follow that the policies and laws surrounding drug use would reflect that intolerance. This is obviously however, not the case. What we the people must come to understand is that our values, our morals, our children and their susceptibility, are far less important that the profit motive in this society. And until the profit motive loses it’s stronghold on our collective psyche, we as a people will continue to be subordinated to the desires of those who wish to profit off of us, and our children.

F.Y.I

For more information on Bob, The Surrey Coalition of Parents, and the on-going battle between the people and the businesses here in Surrey, check out this site:

http://www.visionaryrecords.com/crackpipesincandystorescrusade/COPrecords.html

Social Contradicitions: Cigarettes in the Pharmacy

2006-06-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

By Keetah Bryant (FRL)

Going through my e-mails on the weekend, I came across a petition to ban British Columbian drugstores from selling cigarettes, something that’s already been done in seven Canadian provinces. Apparently there’s a contradiction between the idea of being a health care provider and a dealer of death. While yes, it is a contradiction of sorts, it’s only one of many contradictions provided to us by our local drug store, and Canadian social and business policy at large.

What other items do drugstores sell? At this point, discussion on the ever-lurking monsters, the pharmaceutical companies, will be left for another debate. What I would like to to point out are the contradictions behind other products that you can purchase in the drug store, and then subsequently ingest. Food items, if you’d like to call them that.
To begin with, there’s a plethora of pop.

Coca Cola and a Whole Lot More...

Many of these sweet drinks contain more than just preposterous amounts of sugar (which, it has been agreed, is something most of us could do with less of). Other ingredients include sodium citrate, caramel (E150), brominated vegetable oil, and sodium benzoate, among others.

Sodium Citrate: This is a proven anti-coagulant. Yes, that’s right, it interferes with your natural blood clotting mechanisms. Good I suppose, if you were trying to bleed to death. The citrate ion, present in this little additive, actually chelates calcium ions in your blood, making clotting impossible.

Caramel (E150): This sweet sounding additive is actually a colorant, not anything else. Also present in things like brown bread, many scientists believe consumption of this agent can result in neurological disorders and adverse effects to our disease immunity systems.
Brominated Vegetable Oil: Present in some of citrus-flavored drinks here in Canada, this nasty little additive has been banned in the UK. Apparently it can accumulate in our tissue, and lead to various anatomical abnormalities.

Sodium Benzoate: This ingredient can also be found in things like fruit juices and ketchup. Some doctors believe it can lead to neurological disorders and allergic reactions, like asthma.

Chips and Salty Snacks...

Snack corporations have recently recognized the need to remove hydrogenated oils and trans fats from their products. As consumers became aware of the grave dangers these sorts of additive posed to their health, the companies responded by offering trans-fat free products. Although some types of chips boldly state the presence of MSG in their bags, others allude to the less familiar, although equally damaging taste enhancers like disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate): This substance is widely known to cause allergic reactions in people, manifested in any number of ways, including headaches and skin conditions. It has been associated with brain damage, possible psychological side effects such as depression, and can also lead to birth defects.

Not only are these chemicals associated with brain damage, they also have pre-determined and targeted effects our brains. These man-made substances elicit a chemical response in our brains, causing us to consume large amounts of food items treated with taste enhancers. As such, deep and lasting associations form between us and the products we consume containing these chemicals, and this could be likened to a deadly addiction.

Chocolates, Candies, and Sweets

Once again, we’re going to ignore the consideration of sugar altogether, and rely on the previously mentioned general consensus on that topic. We’re also going to ignore the consideration of caffeine, as we did in the discussion of soft drinks. We’re also going to ignore the ever-present hydrogenated oils and trans-fats that seem to be an integral part of today’s drugstore shelf chocolate. Rather, we’ll take a look at some less familiar but equally ubiquitous ingredients like soy lecithin and carrageenan.

Soy Lecithin: Soy lecithin comes “from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a ‘degumming’ process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides, and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown” (Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD. 2004)
Visit: www.wholesoystory.com

Carrageenan: According to Dr. Robert Cohen, “carrageenan is about as wholesome as monosodium glutamate, which is extracted from rice, and can be equally considered as “natural”. Aspartame (NutraPoison), is also natural, as it is extracted from decayed plant matter that has been underground for millions of years (oil). So too are many other substances, such as carrageenan that can also be classified by the FDA and USDA as wholesome and natural food additives” (2005)

Dr. Tobacman has done numerous studies on carrageenan and it’s effects, on animals as well as humans. She has demonstrated that “digestive enzymes and bacterial action convert hight weight carrageenans (those found in our food) to dangerous low molecular weight carrageenans and poligeenans in the human gut. These carageenans have been linked to various human cancers and digestive disorders”. Dr. Tobacman has also found indications linking carrageenan consumption to breast cancer in women.

Because only the degraded form of carrageenan (the degraded stuff in our stomachs after we eat it) can cause cancer, and not the undigested form, as added to many of our foods, the FDA granted the substance it’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, and as such, it appears in numerous food items.

The Verdict:

After careful consideration of the products that are present in our drugstores, the things they contain, and the harm they have been proven to cause, it only seems petty to instigate a campaign directly against cigarettes. At least people generally know the ills that cigarettes can cause - primarily lung cancer, strokes, bad teeth, and death. At least these products are labeled as harmful. At least these products are limited to consumption among the age of majority. At least cigarettes aren’t being sold as something benign, masquerading behind a corporate facade. What’s more cause for concern is the relative ignorance that prevails when it comes to food additives and the damage they do to our bodies.

There are no grave warning labels on our food packages in Canada (although they are readily available in parts of the UK). We as people are generally unaware that we are doing ourselves harm by ingesting these thing, even when we do so on a very irregular basis. There are no chip bags with ominous cancer warnings. How many people would buy a bag of monosodium glutamate-laced Doritos if they were slapped with the warning: MAY CAUSE PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE. How many women would indulge in “light” pudding snacks if the label also read “WARNING: AMOUNTS OF CARRAGEENAN IN THIS PACKAGE HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE BREAST CANCER”?

Fighting against cigarettes is a socially acceptable, noble thing to do - it protects our children (and us) against the evils of large corporations and their ability to profit of our ill health. But, as in every war, the first consideration would be to KNOW YOUR ENEMY. The enemy is not the presence of the tobacco in the pharmacy, the enemy is the presence and persistence of corporate provisions everywhere we turn, and the dangerous substances they sell to us as “food”. But hey, at least now it’s trans fat free.

These sorts of petty contradictions will continue to be the norm until profit loses it’s primacy in our society, and knowledge prevails over the ignorance that these profit-centered institutions and ideologies have imposed upon us.

Website Resources (Do Your Own Homework)

http://www.caloriecontrol.org

http://www.soyonlineservices.co.nz/06guidance.htm

http://www.notmilk.com

http://www.newint.org/issue135/action.htm

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html

Spoonfed By Derek Burney

2006-06-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

Spoon-fed. What’s In that Spoon??

If you’re like most politically conscious Canadians, you’d have watched the new year election with a degree of attention. You would have watched the polls (which rarely wavered from the prediction of a Conservative win), and you might have watched the Leader’s Debate on CBC, as you carefully weighed your choices and honed in on the candidate that would best suit your needs. The Canadian media would have played a large role in helping you formulate your decision, providing you with information on the most popular political candidates, their platforms, and their promises. And on the day you cast your vote, played your role as citizen and participated in the Canadian democracy as you ought to. The results rolled in. Canada, for the first time in 12 years, was headed by the Conservative party, this time with Stephen Harper as their poster boy.

This is precisely what ought to have occurred. We the Canadian public are fed “information” by our news networks and their affiliated pollsters, and we are faced with what looks like a choice that we must actively participate in. As long as this process is never questioned, never examined, these sorts of democratic elections might continue for years, serving the people of the so-called free nations that participate in them.

But something is gravely wrong with this picture of so-called democracy and choice. Behind the facade of news, information and choice lurks a sinister mechanism of mass control that we the public are completely unaware of. As the media networks churn out appropriate information for our consumption and consideration, the other network of Canadian elites designs and implements public policy, budget decisions, foreign policy, international relations, and the like. The election is merely the legitimating factor - it gives us the people the illusion of choice, that somehow we ourselves have participated in the direction of our future as a nation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Regardless of how disagreeable this all might seem, the fact remains that more often than not, the truth is unbearably impalpable. We can continue to swallow blindly, whatever excrement elite politicians and their supportive news networks can shove down our throats, or we can open our eyes and see the reality of what it is we’re being fed. The only way to eliminate bullshit is first to recognize it as such.

In the words of Harry G. Frankfurt:

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone know this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident in their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry.”

Bullshit Delivery Systems:

There isn’t a Canadian around that doesn’t know that the CBC is the public broadcasting station. Heck, it’s the only channel you can get for free when you can’t afford cable. The common beliefs surrounding the CBC are primarily centered on dependability, depth of coverage, and lack of bias. There is a general sense of reliability that comes to mind when anyone mentions the CBC. If it’s on the CBC, then it’s to be trusted, right?

Sometimes it isn’t about what the media is telling us, it’s about what they choose not to tell us.For those of you who still hold dearly to your beliefs about the CBC, perhaps you’d be interested in hearing about Kalle Lasn’s (adbusters, The Media Foundation) experience with the network: apparently the money of some Canadians is not accepted as readily as others at the CBC. The network refused to air the association’s “Buy Nothing Day” ad spot, as it contradicted the ubiquitous messages of other advertisers who regularly advertise with the CBC.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/09/15/Arts/adbusters040915.html

http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mediacarta/legal/inthenews.html

It’s not just the CBC. (Unfortunately, the CBC is widely recognized for it’s accurate presentation of facts, and that wide recognition is far from deserved. As such, it’s the first network which ought to be exposed for it’s biases, strategic omissions, and it’s inability to respond to the needs of the Canadian people).

This sort of bias in information is present not only on a national level, but it permeates all levels of media delivery, all the way down to the free local papers that are left four times a week on our doorsteps. Hanna Kawas, chairperson of the Canadian Palestinian Association has become all too familiar with the kinds of “truth” that our modern media outlets offer us, the public. His letter, which he wrote to correct the editor of his local paper on his erroneous historical portrayal of past events, went unpublished, because it revealed a fallacy in what was purported to be fact.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/May/11%20o/What%20Actually%20Happened%20By%20Hanna%20Kawas.htm

http://blog.zmag.org/ee_links/silence_on_israeli_terrorism

For a full account of the rise of a media mind control enterprise, look at the article on this blog, entitled “SOS From the Republic of Canwest”.

It’s readily apparent that the main objective of local and national media news sources is not truth. Omissions of fact and opinion are a regular occurrence at all levels of news media delivery. These entities work to maintain an image of Canadian society that is generally agreeable to the Canadian people, and maintains the ability of the elite to exercise societal control beyond the scrutiny of the public, whom they manipulate.

He Who Holds the Spoon...

So if the popular media, both in Canada and the US, can be seen as the spoon that shovels this fodder into our waiting mouths, than who is it that holds this spoon?

Most of us would assume, and rightly so, that our elected officials are the spoonholders of the nation. They decide how to administer taxation, how to distribute national funds, how to run the country. And we the people, gladly take this spoon into our mouths - after all, we are the ones who chose these individuals to hold the spoon. This is precisely the illusion that we the people are supposed to have, as those who truly hold the power (and hence the spoon), stay hidden from public scrutiny, and their manipulations of society go unnoticed by the masses.
Stephen Harper has no independent power - his leadership is an illusion. Elections are merely a process through which those in power gain the manufactured consent of the people. The Canadian Prime Minister, the US President, are puppets of the select few who hold the power, who wield the cash, and who use our country and it’s people as their commodity, which can be bought, sold, or traded as needed.

There are a number of elites in this country, most of whom you will not find in the parliament buildings, but rather sitting on numerous corporate boards, heavily invested in energies, armaments, and media. These individuals have a history that reflects tight and lucrative associations with government, lavish lifestyles, and social and racial exclusivity. These people hold a common belief that the masses, we the people, are mere cattle that need to be fed, led, and directed, so that they, the profiteers, can continue manipulating, deceiving, and profiting off, our working class mass.

Meet Derek Burney...

Derek Burney is best known for his role as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1987 1o 1989, during which time he helped to finalize NAFTA.

In 1989, he left his post as Chief of Staff to become the Canadian Ambassador to the United States until 1993, at which time he moved on to Bell Canada. In 1999, he moved on to CAE Inc., where he was president and CEO of the company until 2004. He currently sits on the following corporate boards: CanWest Global Communications, Quebecor World Inc. (a print media corporation), TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. and Shell Canada, where he is lead director. He is also president of the board of New Brunswick Power, and is a valued “fellow” at CDFAI (The Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute). He also teaches at Carleton University, a school which recently published his book/memoir “Getting it Done”. Most recently, Mr.Burney joined Oglivy-Renault, an exclusive law firm here in Canada (where Brian Mulroney is senior partner), as a senior advisor on trade and other international issues. It’s interesting to note that one of the most controversial appointees to cabinet by Mr. Harper is a former employee of this same law firm. Michael Fortier, our new Minister of Public Works, used to practice law at Oglivy-Renault.

After the 39th federal election held on January 23, 2006, Derek Burney led up the Harper transition team meetings, which took place behind closed doors. According to the Globe and Mail, Derek “led the transition team, which was responsible for hiring senior staff and setting up the cabinet-committee structure in the weeks after the Conservatives' Jan. 23 election win”. He continues to be a pervasive force that exerts huge power and influence on the policy and direction of the Canadian government, all beyond the seeing eyes of the public. Stephen Harper responds to the desires of Derek Burney and his social cohorts, and not to the desires of the Canadian people. This is relatively easy to see, provided one knows where to look.

You might call Derek Burney a true prophet if you had heard him speaking in the months before the election. You would observe that everything he spoke of had come to pass in a relatively short period of time. You would realize that Mr. Harper’s actions are merely an expression of this great man’s thoughts, and as such you would recognize the breadth and depth of his control.

Derek Before the Election

On November 17, 2005, Derek Burney made a speech at The Ranchmen’s Club in Calgary, entitled “Canada-US Relations: Are we Getting it Right?”. As he addressed the attendees, he drove home his agenda: “..security and prosperity should be the over-riding priorities for our government, and relations with the United States are critical to both.”

In September earlier that year, he had addressed a crowd at the First Canadian Place, which was playing host at the time to the Toronto Branch reception of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. At this event, he gave a speech entitled: “Canada-US Relations: Weeds in the Garden.” He opened his speech with the following statement:

“We should take our head out of the sand and reconsider our position on missile defense and endeavor, more generally, to become more than a spectator in the defense of our own continent... If we want to be more relevant in Washington we need to give security a higher and clearer priority. We cannot afford a free ride on our own defense.”

He went on to encourage smarter cooperation with the US in relation to the energy and forestry sectors, saying that the current negotiations over softwood lumber were equivalent to “huffing and puffing”, and that a more “pragmatic...” and “permanent solution” would “inject more certainty for the whole industry”.

He later reminded the attendees, that Trudeau’s “personal dalliances with Fidel Castro..did not sit well with the Regan administration, and that Canada has currently “aggravated already tender nerves in Washington” by it’s abrupt decision to “stand down on Ballistic Missile Defense”. “The mood is not healthy,” he warned.

But Derek Burney had a solution for the audience, and a good one. “We could use more creative thinking and consistent political leadership,” he suggested, “a real sense of purpose from the top reflecting conviction not wariness”. He identified the “pressing need to rejuvenate existing bilateral institutions”. According to Mr. Burney, “NAFTA... is under heavy strain” and “NORAD risks becoming a shell”. Just months before the election he identified “the single biggest threat to Canada’s well being today” as “a lapse or breach of security along our shared border”.

Why Derek Sells “Security”

The most relevant and recent link to Derek Burney’s insistence on Canadian military security can be found in his connection with CAE, beginning in early 2000. CAE is not just a company that has interests in passenger planes, as some news sources would have us believe. In 2000, with the help of Derek Burney and his close ties with the US, the company managed to secure a contract with the ARI (United States Army Research Institute), where it delivered it’s first Medallion visual system to the US Army in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

In 2001, CAE (under Burney’s lead), purchased BAE SYSTEMS Flight Simulation and Training of Tampa, Florida, for US$80 million to “gain access to the mammoth US defense market, and named the company CAE USA”. Exactly a year after this purchase, CAE “became a prime contractror for the US Army” when it signed a US$50 million deal to create the world’s first AH/MH-6 combat mission simulator for it’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).

In that same year, CAE, in partnership with CBD Training won a five-year contract worth C$28 million to provide aircrew training and courseware development for the US Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB) in Nevada. In 2002, CAE Canada also announced a partnership with Boeing to “collaboratively evaluate and develop opportunities in missile defense...[and] to evaluate and develop systems related to air and missile threats, sensors, interceptors, and battle management/command, control, and communications systems.” Burney saw the move as “enabling stronger defence, intelligence, and police cooperation.” “We should increase our defense spending...” he said, “ ...procrastination on such issues like missile defence does not help”.

During his time with this company, Derek Burney succeeded in making numerous and lasting in-roads with all sorts of military production power all over North America, which was assisted by his previous career experience and networking connections as Ambassador to the US. Not only did CAE grow during his reign, they also diversified into marine vessel control and navy training, while “divesting” from less profitable business markets (like forestry) in 2002.

Derek Swings Into Action
Immediately after the Conservatives predictably won the most recent federal election, Derek Burney undertook action to ensure that the priorities he had conceived of for Canada were met. As one of the key members of Harper’s transition team, he had immediate access to policy reform measures, budget decisions, and military directions. And all of this is rather evident from the string of events that followed the last election.

In the second week after the election, Stephen Harper met up with Derek Burney in a closed door meeting. The following week brought with it appointments to cabinet that it seemed no one could have anticipated, including the appointment of an unelected Minister of Public Works, Mr. Michael Fortier.

On January 25, 2006, just weeks after the election, there was a shoot out at the Peace Arch border crossing in British Columbia, a CanWest Global media stronghold. You’d think Mr. Burney knew this was going to occur - as previously mentioned, he had identified a breach at the border as “the single biggest threat to Canada” previous to the election. The aerial shots of the impromptu event, produced by CanWest Global, seem to have been snapped and captured just as the events were unfolding. The incident forced the Canadian guards to leave their posts, as they “feared for their safety”, being that they were unarmed. Within one day, the Harper government responded to the incident with a pledge to arm our Canadian border guards, to increase our border security. Stockwell Day, the newly-minted Minister of Public Safety scurried into the province immediately following the border breach, and assured the public that the guns would be forthcoming. Between the US border paranoia and the well-timed breach of armed criminals brashly penetrating the Canadian border, right in front of CanWest Global’s waiting cameras, it seems Mr. Burney’s desire to have “secure borders” is well on it’s way to being fulfilled.

In line with Mr.Burney’s intolerance of independent nations, Harper moved to cut off funding from the newly and democratically elected Hamas, the Palestinian authority, after they failed to recognize their stolen homelands and the occupiers as “Israel”.

It seems as if Derek Burney was also paving the way for Mr.Harper when it came to his first leader’s summit in Mexico. According to reports from the CBC, there were “secret negotiations” between Canadian and American officials “to arrive at a framework agreement over softwood lumber prior to the announcement of formal negotiations”. Ian Brodie, Chief of Staff for the PM, and Derek Burney, travelled to the US two weeks prior to the Leader’s Summit to meet with US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, the senior presidential advisor Karl Rove, and the old Chief of Staff at the White House, Andy Card. Apparently they were working to “have a deal pretty much in place so that when the negotiations resume[d] they [would] conclude quickly and favorably”. It seems Mr. Burney ensured a “pragmatic and more permanent solution” to the softwood lumber issue all on his own. Why delegate when you can get it done yourself?

On April 4, 2006, Harper’s speech from the throne touted the US as our “best friends”, and as the wars wage on in the Middle East, it seems as if Canada and the United States are becoming increasingly similar in action and ideology. According to the Ottawa Citizen, most folks (65%) are OK with Stephen Harper signing off his speeches by sputtering “God Bless Canada” at the end of them, but some of us are unsure about these new ideologies and the inevitable actions that regrettably come with them.

Military Ambitions

The importance that Mr. Burney places on the militarization of the nation is rather blatant, but what is a little more unclear is why this militarization is so important to him. Most of us are familiar with the newly identified threat of “international terror” since the the events of 9-11 captivated us all. More recently, our own “homegrown terrorist act” was apparently avoided by swift and sly intervention on the part of the police and CSIS, but is the this the real reason behind the need for all this proposed military might?

In understanding Canada’s pursuit of a beefier military, it’s helpful to understand the backgrounds of those advocating such a situation in the government. The new Canadian defense minister Gordon O’Connor is a former General and also a former lobbyist. O’Connor worked as a military lobbyist for eight years, until 2004 when he was first elected. “He even lobbied for Airbus (Boeing) on a contract for military transport planes that he will now play a roll in judging” (Murray Cooke, 2006). It isn’t surprising that O’Connor, like Burney, is supportive of the American missile defence project.

One of the current parliamentary debates over military expenditures features O’Connor vs. Gen. Rick Hillier. O’Connor wants to spend $2.5 billion on four Boeing C-17 Globemasters - long haul strategic transports, which would be acquired in a “sole source” acquisition. Hillier would rather the government spend $4.6 billion on 16 short-haul tactical transports. Hillier would rather use rented Russian long-haul planes, available to Canada on 72 hours notice through a NATO agreement, than buy them from the United States. This purchase, according to some, would “deprive the Montreal-based aerospace industry of billions of dollars of lucrative industrial spin-offs in the coming decades”. In all liklihood, as indicated by comments from Peter McKay and other conservative party members, the Boeings will be bought.

In a recent interview Derek Burney stated to the press that he “put[s] a premium on loyalty, and most people in politics do”. He obviously must be loyal to his friends at Boeing, who helped lift CAE to it’s “top-supplier” status with the US Military back in 2002. He is also obviously loyal to the militarization of space, the ongoing “war on terror” and the other “evils” that “independent nations” breed, as has been indicated by his speeches, writings, and current strategic power positions in Canadian society.

Energy vs. Environment

Derek seems to have other allegiances as well, primarily in the energy sector, so it’s no surprise that with the rise of the Conservatives in Canada came the fall of the previously ratified Kyoto agreement. As previously mentioned, Derek Burney is currently the president of the board of New Brunswick Power, a company that burns large amounts of fossil fuels in order to generate electricity for the region and the every hungry United States.

In 2002, the government of New Brunswick “gave their endorsement and approval for a $750 million project to burn Orimulsion,” (which is a patented and generally “dirty” fuel source that comes only from Venezuela)at the Coleson Cove Generating Station. According to David Thomspon (2002), “... the plant has operated since 1976, burning a low grade of number 6 bunker oil”. The largest power plant in New Brunswick, it is “also the largest single point of greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions in Atlantic Canada”.

The Orimulsion dream didn’t last long at New Brunswick Power, as the independent Venezuelans backed out of the deal. For environmentalists in the area, it’s a small relief, as Orimulsion has been recognized has a highly pollutive and volatile fuel which resists clean-up when spilled in water by sinking out of sight into the ecosystems below. Coleson Cove is back to burning the more expensive bunker oil, and the cost of dealing with independent nations and their fickle nature over their exports will be approximately “$2 billion in increased fuel costs over the next ten years”.

When N.B. power isn’t burning oil, it’s burning coal for energy. According to Larry Lack (2005), “almost 80% of Nova Scotia’s electricity and 20% of New Brunswick’s is generated at coal-fired plants... Most of the coal burned by New Brunswick power... is mined at the world’s largest coal mine, located on the Guajira Peninsula in northern Columbia near the Venezuelan border”. This mine, called Cerrejón, was sold in 2002 “to a consortium of Australian, British, South African and Swiss corporations”. In response to pressure from the IMF, these new owners effectively slashed the price of the coal comming from Cerrejón, which made it far more affordable on the world market. New Brunswick Power became one of the mine’s biggest customers, as the low wages of the Columbian mine workers allowed them to purchase the coal at a highly competitive price.

The mine and it’s effects have been highly controversial in Columbia, “where massacres and death squads in mining and petroleum-extraction regions have taken the lives of hundreds of union leaders and thousands of campesinos in recent years”. Currently, the mine is 35 miles wide and five miles long - the consortium that controls that area (until their lease expires in 2034) plans to “ double the mine’s area, extending it into the territory of five more villages that are likely to be relocated or obliterated when the company decides it needs their land”.
It’s no surprise then, that the newly appointed Minister of the Environment, Rona Ambrose is no friend of Kyoto and it’s restrictions on the burning of fossil fuels. According to Rona, Canada is not even willing to purchase the Kyoto “credits”, which can be viewed as fines over-polluters pay to nations who have their emissions under control. The Conservatives have completely backed out of an international agreement that Canada was an integral part of. People like David Suzuki are left completely aghast and dismayed, that the government would have the audacity to lose it’s international face over something has globally influential as climate change.

When looking at the associations, the corporations, and the loyalties that Mr.Burney himself professes to have for such alliances, it’s no surprise that the Harper government turned it’s back on Kyoto to face a more military-oriented and less environmentally friendly future. With all the loyalties Mr. Burney and his associates have to oil companies, energy companies, foreign coal barons and their militias, missile makers, purveyors of armaments and artillery, and “the American way”, it should be no surprise that this is the direction our country is taking. And if you expect to hear about these hows and whys on your local or national news, or read about it in the press, that won’t happen, because Mr.Burney and his associates are well in control of the media and press through intimate board associations like CanWest Global and Quebecor World Inc.

Saving face isn’t important to the faceless - those that operate beyond public scrutiny. What is important, is the continuation of anonymity among the powerful, and a lack of public awareness in regards to social control. So long as we the people remain blind to what it is that forces our obedience and consent, we will continue to destroy each other and our planet in order to provide short term benefits for the elite. It is imperative that we the people begin to understand these mechanisms of control, and who the individuals are who reap the benefits of such mechanisms. With this awareness comes accountability, and with accountability, a new possibility, of lasting fundamental change.

A Nation of Contradictions

2006-05-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ok so i guess i need some help understanding what's going on. On this auspicious eve of bush's presidential address on immigration policy i'm trying to understand how language can hide so much violence, hatred and inhumanity. i'm trying to understand how sentences do not grammatically falter from the weight of so much hypocrisy. And i'm trying to understand what mechanisms have so flawlessly facilitated a logic that allows us to forget legacies of genocide, slavery and oppression in exchange for values of democracy, liberty and justice.

What the fuck am i missing here?

Perhaps extracting some quotes from tonight's speech will help to explain my confusion:

"We must begin by recognizing the problems with our immigration system. For decades, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders. As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border and millions have stayed."

Did he just say "sneak??" See 'cause when i think of the word "sneak" i tend to associate it with the more light-hearted of activities. Such as sneaking into a second movie matinee without buying a ticket or perhaps a kid sneaking in a donut before dinner...shit like that. Working for years to finance an incredibly physically and emotionally draining journey across latin american borders where in which you are more than likely to fall victim to robbery, as well as physical and sexual assault at the hands of gangs who roam the streets looking for migrants, if not at the hands of police authorities themselves, seems deserving of another descriptor. Furthermore, to say that they just "snuck" across the border denies them the dignity of acknowledgement of the circumstances from which they are fleeing. It infantilizes people, reducing their struggles to a childish game of hide-and-go-to-america. It refuses to recognize the tremendous amounts of hope and investment, fear and terror, as well as danger and risk by which such a journey is characterized.. ok lets move on the next quote:

"Once here, illegal immigrants live in the shadows of our society. Many use forged documents to get jobs, and that makes it difficult for employers to verify that the workers they hire are legal. Illegal immigration puts pressure on public schools and hospitals, strains state and local budgets, and brings crime to our communities. These are real problems, yet we must remember that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are decent people who work hard, support their families, practice their faith, and lead responsible lives. They are a part of American life but they are beyond the reach and protection of American law."

Alright so first we are told that these people are criminals that leech off the services and institutions financed by honest hard-working tax-paying citizens, but then we're told that most don’t fit into this category....anyone else a lil confused? It contains elements of the die-hard right wing camp to which bush subscribes in its simplistic understanding of illegal immigrants as responsible for inordinate (and thus noteworthy) amounts of crime, as well as "straining" the economy. But wait! Then there’s a liberal sounding sequel that absolves the majority of immigrants from such social disgrace and reconstitutes them as honest, hard-working and god-fearing.

But alas, just when you think the president might be aware of some sort of shared humanity outside his white supremacist, heteronormative, imperialist world, further investigation renders this possibility moot.

What bush is actually saying is that america welcomes immigrants as long as they are humble, downtrodden, obedient, docile, hardworking and INVITED. The same way bush's ancestors were INVITED by the native people of America to inflict genocide, territorial invasion and centuries of subsequent occupation. So in other words, they (we) are welcome as long as we KNOW OUR PLACE. Just like how black people have always been welcome in the states as long as they knew their place (ie under the whip of a taxpaying white citizen). It’s only when us pesky coloured folks start applying the standards of white humanity to our own bodies that things get ugly.

ok moving on:

"We are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We are also a nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition, which has strengthened our country in so many ways. These are not contradictory goals. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly and fair. So I support comprehensive immigration reform that will accomplish five clear objectives."

oh gawd, now i'm lost again. WE are a nation of immigrants??? Is he actually admitting that his existence in america is not divinely ordained but in fact the result of a very real migration path that led him there? Could it be possible that empire is acknowledging its roots?

OR is this just an elusive statement that could also be understood as NOT including bush (and by extension europeans) as part of the immigration stock boiling in america's big melting pot, but instead be read as referring to the large population of "foreigners" that have come to america in recent years or perhaps have lived there for generations but carry the stain of colour on their skin that denies them naturalized nationality?

The rest of the speech dileneates his five magic objectives that will solve the big bad "immigrant problem." The first describes extensive measures that will be executed in order to strengthen border patrol, including a significant deployment of armed soldiers, military equipment, technology and resources to 'trouble' areas where the "sneaking" takes place. While describing these plans bush assures us that "the United States is not going to militarize the southern border"....I guess he felt like injecting a little comedy into the speech.

The second and third objectives describe his ingenious "temporary worker program" solution that subjects workers from the south to numerous humiliating checks and interrogations before they are deemed fit to enter america for a predetermined period of exploitation.

His fourth objective benevolently spares the many undocumented immigrants already residing in the US from the indignity of deportation and instead graciously allows them to simply pay "a meaningful penalty." Which, if monetary, should be easy considering all the big bucks undocumented immigrants must be making once they minus the remittance (the $$$ they send back to their home countries) from their lucrative taxi driving and housecleaning paycheques. I guess bush does have a heart after all.

His final and most touching declaration was a warning to all them foreigners to remember that once you're let into america, u need to talk, eat, worship, dress, walk and fuck american. Oh! As well as KILL for america, which he relays through a little anecdote of Guadalupe Denogean, a man from mexico who was severely wounded in Iraq. In exchange for his bravery and courage, he was awarded citizenship with bush attending his oath-taking ceremony. Does this mean undocumented immigrants can fight in american wars while they are turned away from the country itself??? Is it apparently legal to die for america when its illegal to enter it???

This is eerily reminiscent of the black americans who fought in vietnam for america when americans at home were forcing them to drink out of separate water fountains. As well as the Native Canadian soldiers who fought in the second world war only to come home to residential schools and the continued appropriation of their culture and heritage. But that was all in the past right? Heaven forbid that we try to contextualize and understand the realities of today by looking to history...or try to understand WHY people are risking their lives and separating from their love ones and homelands to come to the west. Could it have something to do with the stifling economic policies of the present, coupled with the debilitating marks of a colonial past?

I think that it is only through understanding these new immigration laws as rooted in histories of utter inhumanity that we are able to begin to resolve the contradictions inherent in the language of this new world empire. Perhaps this will hopefully help us discover ways in which we can work in solidarity with our suffering sisters and brothers across all borders, no matter how guarded.

The full text of the speech can be found here: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50223

Dick and His Tricks: Mass Ignorance Manufactured for the US to Create Fear and Encourage Hate

2006-05-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Who is Dick Lamm? He’s the former Governor of Colorado, who currently holds a position at University of Denver’s Institute for Public Policy - he’s the head of that department. He recently spoke out at a conference called “Defend Colorado Now”, which served to spread the word about “defending America” from this current onslaught of illegal immigrants. Lamm and his supporters seek to bar “illegal immigrants” from using services funded by the American taxpayer.

For his full speech, see this blog entry: http://www.thecitizen.com/node/5785

Apparently, Dick Lamm thinks that words like “racism” and “xenophobe” halt all important discussions and debate regarding immigration policy. That is, I suppose if you’d like to discuss and promote racist policies or a hatred of foreigners. He believes that a stress on diversity is obviously a road to national demise. He believes in a “culture of victimology” among minorities, a “culture” that’s unwarranted and false, that is supported by the funding of “large foundations”. Dick wants us to understand that we Americans are adversely affected by “the cumulative impact of millions of [immigrants]”.

Who is Dick Lamm? Dick is one of the many voice boxes of the ruling class - the political and economic elite. In order to undermine the solidarity of the working people, those in power seek to create superficial divisions among the working class - it’s best to have them fight amongst themselves over these “social problems”, rather than identifying the real cause of their strife, which would be the methods and desires of the ruling class.

Dick Lamm is an example of elite propaganda proliferation, and the blogger who wrote this article is an example of how beautifully this system of internal mind control works. Completely suceptible to the assertions made by Mr. Lamm, “eodnnaenaj1” has explicitly demonstrated how ignorant some Americans can be. No one can blame the blogger for his or her erroneous views, we can only blame a system which works to proliferate ignorance and derisive views. This unfortunate blogger might be the poster child for American ignorance - proof positive of the American proaganda system at work.

“eodnnaenaj1”, after reflected upon the speech made by the former governor, demonstrates his or her ethnocentricity and lack of complete knowledge by referring to external ways of life and cultures as “barbaric”. The blogger asserts that “over 100 languages are ripping at the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness”. Last time I checked, the American educational system wasn’t anything to be desired. Furthermore, the presence of multiple languages among people of a given geographical area can only make communication, learning, and understanding more pervasive and widespread. The most amusing part of “eodnnaenaj1”’s response to the unfounded fear that Dick Lamm instilled in his listeners is his or her allusion to George Orwell’s book, “1984”. I think you need to read that book again “eodnnaenaj1”, to truly understand the concepts.

The blogger sees the condition of the “true American” people being adversely affected by the scourge of immigrants that come flooding into the nation in droves. He or she sees them as a threat to “the American Dream”.

The Untold Truth:

What American dream?? Dreams are illusions, and so is this picture of “national security” that the elite have been so busy constructing. In order to assist this blogger, and others like him or her who remain deluded in the shadow of sharp talkers like Lamm,
we here propose a short series of truths:

1) North America needs minorities, particularly minorities who are uneducated and linguistically isolated, in order to keep the economy running. If it weren’t for the immigrants and ignorant minorities, who would clean the toilets? Serve the burgers? Drive the taxis? Run the convenience stores? Who would take care of the children for less than minimum wage? Who would clean the suburban houses? Who would change your car tires? If these people were a little more educated, and a little less isolated, this sort of “slavery” would be impossible. They might want good jobs and pursue higher education, and we can’t have that, can we? There can only be so many doctors, lawyers, and other high income earners in this country. Not everyone can have it all.

“True” Americans don’t have enough babies to keep up with the demands of the economy in North America. There aren’t enough pink little babies born in the nation each year to have “true” American toilet scrubbers and “true” American poverty. We as a nation need to outsource the lowest economic bracket of the population, because none of us here want to fill that void. Any capitalist will tell you that an oppressed, ignorant, powerless, and often indebted underclass is precisely what’s needed to keep this system chugging along. The “American dream” relies upon the subordination of lower classes. (Read some Noam Chomsky, some David Hume, maybe even some Walter Lippman, so you can understand why America allows and does not discourage immigrants from coming into the country).

2) Economic growth cannot be sustained without population growth. If Americans want a growing economy, that population has to come from somewhere. If Americans want population growth to cease, they are also asking for economic growth to cease. Based on America’s gross overconsumption habits, coupled with the massive debt and perpetual war, unless all Americans all want to starve to death, they had better keep that population growth chugging along.

3) In a nation that encourages conformity, assimiliation, and focuses on similarities, not differences, the individual is lost - America was founded on the rights of the individual. In a country that perpetuates negative stereotypes about visible minorities, in a country that keeps visible minorities under glass ceilings, in a country that uses brute force to inflict it’s will and ideologies on helpless independent nations, the only logical response would be to assert one’s independence and difference from that sort of status quo.

4) There is no left or right, no democrats or republicans. There is no black or white. There is no Hispanic or Caucasian. There are only two things that exist here in North America - people and profits. Conflict is designed by the ruling class in order to keep that distinction obscure. If the elites can keep the people fighting amongst themselves, the people are completely ignorant to the fact that elite profit is their only true enemy. Corporate greed and corporate profits are the threat to national security, the threat to “the American Dream” and essentially the one major threat to human existence. It’s corporate greed that’s responsible for American job loss, it’s corporate greed that creates a need for an exploitable labour force, it’s corporate greed that creates disparity and class struggles.

So keep listening to Dick, and fight right alongside with him, if your goal is to destroy your world as you know it. If your goal is to propagate hate, misinformation, and destruction, keep on writing “eodnnaenaj1”. There are plenty of us impoverished, working-class world citizens that are holding our breath, waiting for America’s illusion to finally burst.

10 Things You Thought You Knew About Canada (and Other Stuff Nobody Wants You to Know)

2006-04-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

An Opinion Article By

Keetah Bryant

WE LIVE IN A FREE SOCIETY

A truly free society offers all citizens equal opportunities to access education, leisure, work, and sustenance. In a free society, the media is decentralized and represents all facets of the opinion spectrum. Here in Canada, we have an educational system that favours the rich, and wealth concentration in rich neighborhoods prevents equal opportunity in the essential areas of education and leisure.

Our neighborhoods are demographically designed to cater to their populations. In one neighborhood you might find a plethora of organic food (Kitsilano) and in another area you might find ubiquitous fast food outlets (Surrey) - this selective availability of products does not promote equality. (There are those of you out there who will argue with me that the demand for certain things controls the market, and thus the prevalence or lack of prevalence of select business types is entirely due to the demand of the population in that area. I would argue with you that demand is heavily affected by knowledge and access, and if knowledge and access are restricted in certain neighborhoods, then one cannot say that the demand of that area is truly a reflection of the desires of the people.)

The majority of the British Columbian media is controlled by one media giant, CanWest Global. There are numerous accounts of this corporation’s monopoly on our local media, as well as mounting piles of evidence that point to their editorial control and unbridled censorship. We here in Canada have no right to point the finger at China for censoring information from it’s citizens, when we here are subject to the same restrictions. (For more information on Global, see the article in this blog, “SOS From the Republic of CanWest”)

HARD WORK, PERSEVERANCE, AND HONESTY WILL GET YOU ANYWHERE YOU CAN DREAM OF GOING, YOU ONLY HAVE TO TRY

Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless you learn how to kiss ass, how to keep your mouth shut, how to put your needs below those of your employer, you will never amount to anything in our society. Unless you learn how to conform, how to suppress anything that challenges the status quo (including yourself), unless you are willing to silence any dissent that might well up in your throat, then you are condemned to fail. Shut up, put up, and give up - that’s the way to longevity in any career.

For a perfect example of how you ought to behave (even though no one ever explicitly tells you), see the book: “Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know and What to do About Them” by Cynthia Shapiro. (This book is available at your local public library).

In case you don’t have the time to read the book for yourself, here are some tantalizing pieces of advice that Shapiro offers the savvy worker:

“To find the hidden agendas in your company, look at what it’s key decision makers currently reward and value (even if it’s never talked about, even if it’s openly denied or politically incorrect)”.

“Putting yourself and your personal interests before the company will label you as a traitor, not to be trusted, not to be invested in”.

“It’s all about managing the image your company has of you. We all know raising a family and working full times makes for a life full of chaos and extreme juggling. The question becomes how much you let your employer see”.

“At work, your dress should always be conservative. If you can, it should match as closely as possible the style of those at the top”.

WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY THAT IS FREE OF RACISM, SEXISM, AND GENERAL STEREOTYPING

Our society ultimately functions because of our alienation from each other. Racism, sexism, stereotyping and the exclusivity that those attitudes produce, all work together to ensure a working capitalistic system, in which the majority of the population is disconnected from one another. In this way, workers, visible minorities, the impoverished, men, and women, are all perceived as separate entities within society, with distinct and separate interests, making large scale change virtually impossible.

The status quo is maintained, and those who are oppressed continue on in their condition, blinded by the perceived solitary nature of their condition. These superficial divisions, that are encouraged in our society, only distract from the true nature of our economic system, which places control and power in the hands of a small elite, while the large majority of the population struggles amongst themselves for the scraps of token “control” that remain.

How are these divisions nurtured? Through news media, educational institutions, and entertainment devices. All of these mediums foster specific stereotypes that are accepted by the masses, and are then subsequently internalized as “us/them” ideas. When was the last time you heard the word “Indo-Canadian” in a local paper, without the word “gangster” being used in the same breath?
Can you think of any common stereotypes that exist about the Asian community? The Black community? Are your beliefs based on personal experience or what you have heard and learned from outside sources? How do these beliefs affect your interactions with people that are “outside of” your group?

WE ARE MORE LIBERAL THAN THE UNITED STATES

Our two-party dominant system is a farce used to give legitimacy to our pseudo-democracy - Liberals and Conservatives are one in the same entity. Regardless of which party ends up holding the balance of power, ultimately corporate interests are the main concern of all government parties. The parties exist to give the voting public the illusion of choice, the feeling that change will occur because of their independent actions. It is a pacifying tactic that works to lull the public into percieving a democracy where one truly does not exist.

One of the most vocal scholars on this precise point is linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, who has written several books and appeared in numerous movies regarding the current world order. He sees our government as a puppet of large corporations, and the party system of the government as a mere distraction from the fact of our pseudo-democracy. For more information on this topic and more, read: “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance” (2003) and “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9/11 World”, both by Noam Chomsky.

Here are a few select quotes from those works:

“What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose upon the population a ‘philosophy of futility’ and ‘lack of purpose in life’ to ‘concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption’. (64) Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described ‘intelligent minorities’ who serve and administer power.”

“Those at the center of power relentlessly pursue their own agendas, understanding that they can exploit the fears and anguish of the moment. They may even institute measures that deepen the abyss and may march resolutely toward it, if that advances the goals of power and privilege. They declare that it is unpatriotic and disruptive to question the workings of authority - but patriotic to institute harsh and regressive policies that benefit the wealthy, undermine social programs that serve the needs of the great majority, and subordinate a frightened population to increased state control.”

OUR COUNTRY HAS A FREE PRESS, AND A MEDIA SYSTEM THAT DELIVERS THE FACTS

Our media outlets are an integral part of the propaganda machine that operates here in North America. “Propaganda” is a word usually associated with a Nazi-esque regime, or outrageous claims that might come out of the Middle East. Propaganda isn’t something that is at all associated with a “free press”, is it?

Most of the media outlets here in Canada are governed and controlled by people with vast corporate interests, international connections, and stakes in defense contracts and the like. (Once again, check out the article on CanWest Global on this site, as well as the “Derek Burney” watch). Whether we like to believe it or not, the “news” that we get is designed and selected in order to complement and enhance the corporate agendas in our country. Noam Chomsky writes passionately about this concept in his books, and his opinion is featured in a film entitled “Manufacturing Consent” , which can be downloaded or watched at www.archive.org - just search the title in the “Moving Images” section of the search engine.

Here’s a little of what Noam has to say on the state of the North American media:

“ It’s not easy, under stagnating economic conditions, to maintain political power. Only one good method is known: inspire fear. That tactic was employed throughout the Reagan-Bush years, as the leadership conjured up one devil after another to frighten the populace into obedience.”

“One high government official [US] described it’s ‘Operation Truth’ as a ‘huge psychological operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in denied or enemy territory’ - a frank characterization of pervasive attitudes toward the domestic population.”

“My own personal interest, incidentally, is not the media per se but the intellectual culture. The media happen to be the easiest part of the intellectual culture to study. The elite media - The BBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and so on, are the day to day expression of the elite intellectual culture and are therefore much easier to study that intellectual scholarship. You can do that too, but it requires more complex research. In the media you can fairly easily find systematic biases about what’ permitted, what’s not permitted, what’s stressed, what isn’t stressed”.

“The major media do report information, they must for a number of reasons. One is that their primary constituency requires it. Their primary constituency consists of economic managers, political managers, and doctrinal managers - the educated class, the political class, those who run the economic system. These people need a realistic picture of the world. They own it, they control it, they dominate it, they have to make decisions in it, so they’d better understand something about it. That is, why, in my opinion, the business press tends to have better reporting than other national press”.

When Noam Chomsky was asked how one might go about recognizing propaganda, he responded:

“There are no techniques, just ordinary common sense. If you hear that Iraq is a threat to our existence, but Kuwait doesn’t seem to regard it as a threat to its existence and nobody else in the world does, any sane person will begin to ask, where is the evidence? As soon as you ask this, the argument collapses. But you have to be willing to develop an attitude of critical examination toward whatever is presented to you. Of course, the whole educational system and the whole media system have the opposite goal. You’re taught to be a passive, obedient follower. Unless you can break out of those habits, you’re likely to be a victim of propaganda..."

"Just use your ordinary intelligence. There are no special techniques. Just be willing to examine what’s presented to you with ordinary common sense, skeptical intelligence.”

WE ARE AN INDEPENDENT NATION

We are about as independent as a big toe on the foot of America. It doesn’t take much observatory power to recognize that Canada merely bows to the whims of it’s global super-power neighbour (particularly since Stephen Harper and his elite advisory team, which includes longtime US advocate Derek Burney, came into power). The United States deploys troops in an unfounded war, we deploy troops shortly after. America is “addicted to oil”, and Albertans are quick to provide all oil they could ever dream of (at least for awhile). Americans have a problem with border security? We have a problem with border security. The list goes on...

It’s well known in Canada that our archaic laws on marijuana use and possession have been on the reform table for years, screaming for much needed change. But, because of external pressure from our neighbours, we continue to uphold these restrictive, overly-punitive, and widely disregarded laws just to save face in front of our American friends. That doesn’t say much for our so-called independence.

PEOPLE HERE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN SHORTCOMINGS

It’s a fundamental assumption here in North America, the land of opportunity, that success is here for the taking, if only we as individuals step up to the plate. This assumption is pressed into our minds as soon as we are able to perceive and understand. From that point forward, any failures that we experience can be presumed to be of our own making. This thought process is essential to the control of the masses - if people’s poverty, their inability to succeed here in North America is seen as something of their own control, then they have no one to look to but themselves for solutions. And this is precisely how the capitalistic elite have designed it.

The last thing the corporate elite want to assume is any responsibility towards the people whom they exploit. If the common person can be assured that their life position is due solely to their own shortcomings, and not due to the shaping mechanisms of a very powerful, external force, then this unrecognized force can continue to operate freely in it’s subordination of the masses, unchallenged and unrestricted. It has long been understood by those who hold positions of power and wealth, that in order to maintain their elite position, subordination of the masses must be of a primary concern.

Walter Lippman,was an influential journalist and Liberal of the earlier part of the 20th century. Noam Chomsky summarizes his take on the general populous:

“... the goal of putting the public in it’s place in this current ‘democracy’ could be achieved in part through the ‘manufacture of consent’ a ‘self-conscious art and regular organ of popular government’. This ‘revolution’ in the ‘practice of democracy’ should enable a ‘specialized class’ to manage the ‘common interests’ that ‘very largely elude public opinion entirely’”.

Essentially, the ruling class sees the common people as a potential threat to their control and as a nuisance to progress. The masses require pacification and domination. Rather than have the common people aware and resistant to their oppression, this “manufacturing of consent” has produced the common assumption that people are responsible for their own failures here in North America. Coupled with this internalized responsibility, we are made to believe that we need out government to regulate our world, keep us “safe” from the “terrorists” and assure us of our good health (with the help of giant pharmaceutical companies), and “superior” education. We relenquish all of our control and many of our rights, in exchange for the illusion of “national security”, because we are helpless failures without the system and it’s intellectual elite to support us.

WE HAVE UNBIASED DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS

Psychological manipulation of the masses is possible. It happens every day, and there are countless institutions and companies completely devoted to making this mass manipulation ever more effective, and increasingly undetectable to the “untrained mind”. Internet cookies, point cards that track purchasing habits, demographically designed flyer inserts, and consumer profiling are all examples of the less covert methods of “getting in our heads”, but there are also less detectable methods.

A false consensus can be conveyed using polls, and thus the masses respond to this consensus by conforming themselves to it. Our entire human psyche is based on integration with the group, social learning, interdependence - and the makers of our modern day media know this, they know it inside and out. This is how the mechanism of propaganda works. By manipulating the psyche of the masses into a false consensus, the manufacture of consent has occurred. This “consent” can be garnered for acceptance of foreign and preemptive war, acceptance of ideologies and beliefs, and for the proliferation of false ideas, misrepresentation of facts, and general psychological control of the masses.

Because of this highly functional, scientifically developed method of “administering truth”, it seems impossible to conceive of an election in this sort of society that could occur unaffected by the devices and controls of information administration that currently dominate.

VISIBLE MINORITIES DO NOT ENCOUNTER ANY BARRIERS TO SUCCESS IN OUR COUNTRY

Let us begin here with some numbers from Statistics Canada, released as a result of the 1996 census. Only 9% of the Canadian population has a university degree, yet 19% of visible minorities in Canada possess one. It also seems that a larger percentage of visible minority populations attend school, but somehow they are generally less likely than other Canadians to be employed. And working less means earning less. Even though the educational qualifications of this group are relatively high, their incomes are comparatively low. A visible minority here in Canada makes an average of $6000 less per year than the rest of the Canadian population.

In fact, if you are a visible minority, you are nearly twice as likely as your neighbor to live in poverty, because 36% of the visible minority population in Canada lives below the poverty level. It’s also interesting to note, that in the United States, whose minority population shares many like economic circumstances with it’s cohort in Canada, the prison population is a highly disproportionate visible minority group. Here in Canada, Aboriginal people and other visible minorities are highly disproportionate members of our own prison system.
(This picture was taken from a personal website, of an
individual who feels that minorities are infringing on
his right to "things").

According to a 2005 report released by Statistics Canada “ a substantial body of research has shown that the economic welfare of immigrants deteriorated over the 1980’s and 1990’s”. It also alludes to the fact that during the 1990’s incomes fell for most lower income families, and rose for most higher-income families in a majority of Canadian cities. Visible minorities, Aboriginal people, and single parent families are disproportionately represented among the working poor. On average, people in these groups have incomes less than half that of the average Canadian.

OUR MILITARY IS FILLED WITH VOLUNTEERS WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

The above statement is true, but the question of why these people volunteer begs to be asked. An interpretation of North American perceptions on “freedom and democracy” is also necessary.

Some of the perks offered by the military for enlistment are rather seductive: guaranteed income, paid education, and full health coverage. For individuals who look to student loans to finance their education, or for individuals who, for numerous reasons, feel incapable or unable to complete a post-secondary education, the military becomes a very viable option. But who are these people?
Noam Chomsky:

“If there is going to be an army, I think it should be a citizen’s army, not a mercenary army. There are several kinds of mercenary armies. One model is the French Foreign Legion or the Gurkhas, where the imperial power just organizes a mercenary army. Another model is a volunteer army, which is in effect a mercenary army of the disadvantaged. People like us, except for the occasional maniacs, don’t volunteer for it. But people like Lynndie England do volunteer, because they come from a background where that’s their only opportunity. So you end up getting a mercenary army of the disadvantaged, and that’s much more dangerous than a citizen’s army.”

The ideas of freedom and democracy are very hard to define, depending upon who’s speaking about them. Speaking to one of our Canadian troops, the impression would be given that freedom is equivalent to equal opportunity to all, and an existence that is free from oppression. Democracy would be portrayed as a system of government in which the people “participate” in the decisions of the nation. Our soldiers fight for these things, and they volunteer based on these principles - that and the guarantee of security in a very competitive economic world.

If one were speaking to a capitalist elite, freedom would be equivalent to the ability to do anything one choses, regardless of the repercussions. Freedom becomes the ability to dominate and control without being challenged. Democracy would be conceptualized as a system of control that serves to pacify the people into believing they have “free choice” and convinces them that they are “participating” in the decision-making process of their nation. Freedom and democracy are the goals of all people, but how we perceive and achieve those ends can be highly varies, depending upon which side of the fence you sit.

Rambles #1

2006-04-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Photo © Dietrich Walker

Last night some friends and I met up at small bar to celebrate the end of my university career and another friend's departure for Southeast Asia. Amongst rapidly drank beers and hyped conversation, some aspiring hero performed an excruciatingly long peel-out on his motorcycle just outside, making the sidewalk temporarily look as if it were blanketed in a thick fog. The smoke entered the bar as the front door was opened, and everyone's faces in the place looked as if they were in the middle of a toxic spill. When I thought of that moment earlier today, I instinctively held my breath and gasped, as if I could taste the bad air at that moment.

The pollution of this planet is mind-blowing. The energy (petroleum) that took over fifty million years to build up and be stored under the earth is being pumped back into the atmosphere in about 200 years. This incredible acceleration of the world's carbon cycle is the problem. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere isn't unnatural - volcanoes do it every day. It is the incredible rate at which we are doing it that is throwing things off. The remains of little organisms that once floated in Cretaceous oceans fuel our planes, trucks, cars, and lives of abundance and consumption. By no means am I exempt. My Toyota Camry takes me up to the beautiful mountains so that I can enjoy looking at the views through the smog that my car is adding to. Thank God I live in Vancouver and not in L.A. or Mexico City.

Yesterday at the bar a very naive friend, prone to twisted logic, was arguing that overpopulation is going to be the end of us. Humans are reproducing like crazy, meanwhile killing off, one by one, every other species on this planet. As we continue to grow and encroach on every patch of inhabitable land, the resources such a population expansion needs will surely falter, especially if developing countries head in the almighty and blessed direction of the West. We discussed the incredibly sad and unjust situations in Zimbabwe, Sudan, and the history of Africa that so many people seem to be unaware of when discussing the chronic problems facing the continent. So, as an answer to the abovementioned situation of the planet, my counterpart at the table put forth the logic that the only solution for the world's issues is for mass numbers of people to die. Good old population control. According to his line of reasoning the chronic malnutrition, famine, disease, and civil wars that are taking the lives of so many people in the developing world are not such a bad thing; in fact, it is a good thing. The planet has too many people, right?

The incredible flaw with my friend's thinking is that he fails to realize the true source of what torments the Earth. Yes, rising population levels are a serious problem. But they are not the source of the problem, they are a result of the problem. The fastest growing nations on Earth are the poorest. Despite the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Africa's population is growing the fastest of any region in the world. Close behind are Asia and Latin America. Why are women in the poorest nations having so many children? The answers and factors contributing to this are incredibly numerous, complex, and deserve a separate discussion. Poverty, old-age security in nations with no social welfare infrastructure, help on the farm, religion, tradition, lack of knowledge/acceptance/availability of birth control methods, lack of family planning, high infant mortality rates...the list could go on and on as to the possible reasons. Regardless, the fact is that affluent people and societies do not produce tons of children. Poor people have many children. Heeding these simple facts, the conclusion can be drawn that if the majority of the world's population was not poor, the global population would not be skyrocketing at its current levels.

What my friend has failed to recognize is that even if two thirds of Africa's population died today, the planet would not suddenly start getting healthier. The poor nations of the world are not the ones using all of the resources, pumping endless amounts of fossil fuels into our atmosphere...in short, destroying our planet (yes, China and increasingly India are quickly climbing to U.S. energy use levels, but these are two anomalies where a strong, prosperous economy is coupled with widespread poverty). A small minority of the world's inhabitants are using everything and encroaching not only on nature, but on the cultures, societies, and lands of the rest of the world. So, perhaps instead of viewing population control and current situations of widespread death as a positive thing, we can look at the geopolitical and economic reasons as to why so much of the world is so poor. Instead of showering countries with millions of dollars in food aid that often goes to waste, is resold on the international market by corrupt governments, or is not distributed to those that need it the most within nations, we can think of ways to develop sustainable projects, focusing on long-term solutions to the chronic problems faced by so much of the developing world. Additionally, we should look to ways of reducing our impact on the Earth, and examine the impact of our way of life on other nations around the world. The smiling newly married couple can perhaps stop, look at the $10,000 diamond ring on the bride's finger, and think: "where did this beautiful gem come from? How many children in Sierra Leone lost their arms on the day that this beauty was extracted?"

Unfortunately, governments and citizens often neglect to look at the sources of problems, instead focusing only on what is currently happening. People in the West cannot comprehend why so many nations are so poor, lack infrastructure, and are constantly ravaged by famine and/or war. We cannot fathom any interconnectedness between our oh-so-distant nations. It's an "us" and "them" mentality, where we shop at Wal-mart, drink our Starbuck's coffee, admire our pretty roses, wear silver bracelets, and don't think twice about how these products came to be in our possession. Wal-mart and Starbuck's are cheap: that's good economics, and that's what matters in our profit-driven capitalist society. It doesn't affect the consumer that the Wal-mart shirt they just got such a great deal on was made by an 11-year old girl working 14 hours per day in a factory in China. It doesn't even enter the mind of the customer sipping coffee that the coffee beans were grown by a farmer that lives in absolute poverty and is paid almost nothing for their crops. The beautiful red roses on the kitchen table grew in a local nursery: there is no concept of the reality that they most likely came from a place like Columbia, where young girls strip the roses of their thorns, get cut all day long, only to receive the money we would make in 5 minutes working at McDonalds. The shiny silver bracelet certainly couldn't have come from a Bolivian mine high in the Andes, where indigenous people work and die in dark tunnels, where rock can easily fall and crush a person, and poisonous gases can and do rise into the tunnels; a mine where a guide has to retire after only two years because of health reasons (if you're interested, look up the Cerro Rico silver mine in the highlands of Bolivia).

It is hard to say what needs to be done to improve the quagmire that we find ourselves in. However, perhaps if more people become aware of the consequences of their actions and their consumption, we can take a few steps in the right direction. Change begins with small things; if we can all collectively make small adjustments to our daily lives, the net effect will be tremendous.

Krishnamurti Says...

2006-04-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

"To educate a student to conform to society is only to encourage in him the deteriorating urge to be secure. Climbing the ladder of success, becoming somebody, gaining recognition - this is the very substanc of our degenerative social structure, and to be a part of it is to deteriorate".

"No one can teach you, but you can learn. There's a vast difference between learning and being taught. Learning goes on throughout life, whereas being taught is over a few hours, or years - and then for the rest of your life, you repeat what you have been taught"

Taken from "Commentaries on Living" by J. Krishnamurti

2006-04-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Education Inc.
Text and Photos: Keetah Bryant (FRL)

The beacon of education shines most brightly to those in search of upwards mobility, to individuals deep in the trenches of lower middle class society. Among this demographic exists a common desire to rise above the ignorance and poverty that currently surround them. Our governments offer this lower echelon of citizens student loans, so that they may obtain that mighty equalizer; a post secondary degree. With debt in tow, droves of the impoverished, young and old alike, enter into the slick classrooms of the academic and scholarly elite, prepared to be educated and eventually liberated.

Many parents with children in school, hard working parents, wish they had had the opportunity as their children do now, to pursue a (NEW WORD other than good), free, education, offered by a public system. Trusting this system to educate their children in the “naturally superior” Western way, many parents, representing a full gamut of ethnicities, send their children to a North American school, for a North American style education that “leaves no child behind”.

Perhaps there was time before now, when teachers were well-respected and appropriately remunerated members of our society. A time when texts were objectively written; a time when quality mattered; a time when the profit interests of individuals would never interfere with the purity of a genuine education - something we in the Western world have apparently mastered. Unfortunately, that time is no longer at hand.

Society and the Corporate Individual

The introduction of the ever-powerful corporate “individual” into our society changed everything, from our common values to our systems of socialization and interaction. Everything was restructured and re-conceptualized to allow for the presence and proliferation of this new sort of citizen. What savings, what value, what economic prosperity these corporations brought! We welcomed them into our streets, into our homes, and into our schools, unaware of the dire consequences that were to follow.

Today’s Lesson is Brought to You By....

Here in British Columbia we witnessed our teachers cope with cramped classrooms and inadequate funding, as they worked for months without a contract. They undertook “unlawful” job action, and then were subsequently bullied back into their classrooms by harsh penalties from “above”. Our public schools are still scrambling for finances, and increasingly so as the pace of new technology moves ever quicker. This is a weakness in our public education system that our corporate citizens exploit.

“It was technology that lent a new urgency to nineties chronic underfunding: at the same time as schools were facing ever-deeper budget cuts, the costs of delivering a modern education were rising steeply, forcing many educators to look to alternative sources of funding for help.”(Naomi Klein, No Logo, 2002)

Enter Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike, and all the other permeating brands, set to provide a funding alternative to our suffering schools in exchange for unbridled psychological access to our children. Intimately related with the concepts of mathematics, problem-solving, creation, and expression, are the names, images, and feelings associated with these all- pervasive brands.

“Teaching students and building brand awareness, these corporations seem to believe, can be two aspects of the same project.” (Klein, 2002)

The Youth News Network in Canada is just one of these examples. In their case they provide schools with audio video equipment and “free” computers that they can use, in exchange for being able to air two minutes of television advertising per day in the classrooms of the schools that accepted the equipment. The ads cannot be turned off, nor the volume adjusted. Zap Me!, a free in-school Internet browser (accompanied by these “free” computers), monitors the students’ surfing patterns and then send them advertising that is specifically selected for each individual student. The argument is of course, that at least computers and technology are then available for everyone to use. But the question then becomes, who’s using who?
The corporations are also invading lunchrooms and school cafeterias with their so-called “food products”, which have only lead to obesity and poor health among their users.

“In Toronto, [Pepsi] gets to fill the 560 public schools with it’s vending machines, to block the sales of Coke and other competitors, and to distribute “Pepsi Achievement Awards” and other goodies emblazoned with it’s logo.” (Klein, 2002)

Children even participate in corporate-oriented learning in their classrooms, assisting corporations in determining what might be the best product, the best way to advertise it, and the best place to sell it.

“At Vancouver’s Laurier Annex school, students in Grades 3 and 4 designed two new product lines for the British Columbia restaurant chain White Spot. For several months in 1997, the children worked on developing the concept and packaging for ‘Zippy’ pizza burgers, a product that is now on the kids’ menu at White Spot.....The students’ corporate presentation included sample commercials, menu items, party games... taking into account such issues as safety, possible food allergies and low costs... According to nine year old Jefferey Ye, ‘It was a lot of work.’” (Klein, 2002)

Universities have also become a breeding ground for corporate invasion. Billboards are appearing on everything from bike racks to bathroom doors - the landscape of most campuses is littered with logos. And not only do the corporations infiltrate the visual landscape, they are also influencing and infiltrating the content of academic texts ( at all levels of education), and they are commandeering our public institutional research facilities and academic journals.

“All over the world, university campuses are offering their research facilities, and priceless academic credibility, for the brands to use as they please. And in North America today, corporate research partnerships are used for everything: designing new Nike skates, developing more efficient oil extraction techniques for Shell, ... or measuring the relative merits of a brand-name drug....”(Naomi Klein, No Logo, 2002)

It wouldn’t be terrible I guess, if corporations were able to give money to desperate educational institutions, in order for them to continue offering unparalleled academic instruction to the country’s smartest kids. But when the academic integrity of our schools is miserably failing, in part due to numerous fraudulent research reports issued by tenured and revered staff at these places, (See “The Secret Life of Dr. Chandra” at www.cbc.ca), it’s hard to see where the benefit lies, unless you’re a corporation or the recipient of a major payoff, which can be the case at times, it seems.

“On the surface, it’s easier to account for the increasing realization of the corporate-linked university than it is to account for lack of resistance to it...a significant if not transformative pattern of institutional change has occurred over a relatively short period of time. And in many ways, these changes sharply contrast to both the idea and the practices of the university that preceded them, the university in which most current members of the academy began their careers.” (Janice Newson, York University Sociology Professor).

It’s hard to deny the changing face of our schools and the fundamental change in values that inevitably accompanies such a grand (and rather hasty) paradigm shift. Where once our educational institutions served to proliferate knowledge, research, and obtain truths through unbiased processes, they now serve as legitimating fronts on which corporations can wage war against each other with their “legitimate research proves” claims. And while they are inventing these “legitimate” research results, they are quickly and mercilessly encroaching on our very valuable and very susceptible psychological space. The seduction of profit has severely and negative altered the value basis on which all fundamental educational institutions were built. As such, the profit motive has succeeded in changing their inherent function of educational institutions. In the past there was a value placed on the knowledge of fact and the objectively rigid quality of research that went into obtaining those facts. Today there is a higher value placed on profit, brand awareness, and mass internalization of this new mode of profit/brand-centered thought throughout society.

Related Information:

Use the following links to take a look at other people’s like concerns around the globe.
http://www.nologo.org/

http://www.weac.org/News/2000-01/oct00/commercialism.htm

http://www.alternet.org/story/14355/

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/classroom.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/10/273954.shtml

Interested in reading the rest of No Logo by Naomi Klein? View sample pages here:
http://books.google.ca/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0312421435&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;id=QoNxo_bZRiMC&dq=naomi+klein,+no+logo&lpg=PA2&pg=PA2&sig=-tDO3cEULGEj0cXdGT8K0Vsu6gw

The Dream

2006-03-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Verdict?
Unfortunately, for proponents of the American dream, there is now irrefutable evidence that “the dream” is merely an illusion, merely a device used to extract resources from the poor and hopeful, and redirect those resources into the hands of the knowing and wealthy.

SOS From the Republic of Canwest

2006-02-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

SOS From the Republic of CanWest:

Media Tactics Interfere with Federal Election Outcomes, Canadian Unity, and Canadian Identity

By Keetah Bryant

Allow me to introduce our “leaders”, Leonard, David, and Gale Asper, inheritants of the late Izzy Asper’s media empire. According to the Manitoba Calling Magazine, this trio is “the second generation to lead the CanWest Global Corp., a company perfectly willing to conquer the media world from it’s Winnipeg headquarters”. Their self-stated mission? “If you can watch it, read it, or download it, we want to be the source.” The photo accompanying the article is equally ambitious; three polished faces, beaming with the light rays that stream out
from behind a globe, which is interestingly nestled between the three of them. “Think big”, is the oversized caption.

The CanWest Global Media giant hasn’t succeeded in taking over the world yet, but they have brutally taken over the British Columbian media. This has been accomplished through blatant censorship, restricting contribution of content to select Asper-approved individuals, and restricting represented ideologies in all their media, with what are commonly referred to by the suppressed as “Aspertorials”. These actions, are purposefully and directly related to a precise political and economic agenda, which puts corporate interests above all else. This
is best illustrated by the involvement of CanWest Global’s corporate elite, the players, in their exclusive circles of capital, politics, and control. This corporate agenda will be best served by a Conservative majority in the House of Commons, with Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister.
CanWest Global, and anyone else who has a background in social psychology know, covert and
intentional manipulation of the masses is possible. Through a series of tactical endeavors on the part of the individual,( in this case, a corporation is an individual as well), one can change the behavior and beliefs of others, even on a mass scale.

Evidence for this tactical manipulation can be found in the media proliferation of polls and their respective interpretations, most of which are of a questionable source. It’s evident in the inaccuracy and lack of representativeness in CanWest Global’s media content. Manipulation is obvious in the one-sided opinions that appear in all papers across British Columbia, and flow out of the lips and off the keyboards of CanWest’s journalists across the country. This ultimately functions to restrict the flow of accurate, representative communication between British Columbia and the rest of Canada. Ethical journalists, seasoned writers, scholarly
professionals, ethnic communities, even entire publications are screaming over here, but no one in the rest of Canada can hear us. We are shut out from participating in our local media. No one can hear our complaints over the din being created by CanWest Global’s proclamations across the nation, the strategic and ubiquitous shouts and whispers of pre-election “evidence” , all pointing to a Conservative victory on January 23, 2006.

The Republic of CanWest: Media Takeover in British Columbia

It wasn’t always like this here in British Columbia - seasoned journalists from the area can remember better times. Some would say the changes began when the Fraser Institute (which has the reputation around here as being a right-wing think tank) was born out of the generosity of MacMillan Bloedell, who seemed to be having trouble with BC’s NDP government, back in 1974. Others feel that 2000 was the fatal year, with whisperings of a
CanWest’s purchase blowing around in the summer, and ending in fall of that year with the highly-publicized and equally controversial CanWest Global purchase of Conrad Black’s $3.2 billion dollar newspaper chain, Hollinger’s.

Israel Asper, founder of the media giant, handed the reins of the company over to his son Leonard at this time, and Leonard’s been leading the way ever since. Just a year after Leonard became CEO and president, CanWest Global achieved national recognition as the top TV network for prime time. When questioned about the Hollinger purchase in a television interview, Israel Asper explained, “When we bought... we intended to make our point of view heard. That’s one of the joys of being a publisher-in-chief...” Even back in 1991, when Izzy acquired 20% of TV3 in New Zealand, he made his position clear. A paragraph from James Winter’s article, “Canada’s Media Monopoly” explains:

Izzy Asper gathered 200 employees of the station in the cafeteria and astounded them by asking a journalist, “You. What business do you think you’re in?”The journalist replied that “the business we’re in is to make sure our audience gets the most carefully researched news and information possible.” Asper asked the same question of the drama andentertainment departments, and got similar answers.
“You’re all wrong,” he told them. “You’re in the business of selling soap.

CanWest Global’s holdings in British Columbia are vast, and account for over 90% of the daily
newspaper circulation in this province. The holdings encompass a large number of small weekly and bi-weekly papers that circulate in the Lower Mainland and on the Island, and are delivered to homes all over the province, free of charge. The following is a list of publications, owned and controlled by CanWest Global here in British Columbia: National Post, The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times-Colonist, Alberni Valley Times,
Nanaimo Daily News, Westerly News (Port Alberni), Pennyworth Shopper (Port Alberni), Burnaby Now, New Westminster Record, Surrey Now, Langley Advance, Abbotsford Times, Chilliwack Times, Maple Ridge Times, Coquitlam Now, Richmond News, Delta Optimist , Vancouver Courier Eastside, Vancouver Courier Downtown, Vancouver Courier Westside, North Shore News, Campbell River Courier Island, Comox Valley Echo, Cowichan Valley Citizen.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with BC, and cannot conceptualize the expanse of this corporate media empire, get out a map and see for yourself - the reality is staggering.
It didn’t take long for non-partisan, ethical journalists to feel the heaviness of the Asper hand that inevitably came along with the Hollinger purchase - it was either bend or bail. The grumblings in the journalistic community could be heard shortly after ownership transferred hands, and only heightened with CanWest Global’s takeover and “clean-up” at the National Post shortly thereafter. Chronicles of dissent and suppression from outside the stronghold
CanWest Global of course, has holdings outside of British Columbia. However, because those
publications are located in areas where journalists have access to other newspapers that aren’t owned by CanWest, their voices are audible. The following chronology gives a brief overview of the concerns that were expressed by the audible voices in ethical journalism, outside the province of BC.

July, 2001 - Lawrence Martin, a relentless critic of Jean Cretien (a long-time friend of Israel Asper), was fired from his national affairs column.

August 2001 - The board of editorial contributors is disbanded at the Montreal Gazette. On this board sits the chairman of the Muslim Council of Montreal, Salam Elmenyawi. He is told he is welcome to submit several articles a year, but hears no response on his submissions. When interviewed by the Globe in December, he was quoted as saying, “I don’t think I’ll be writing anything for the Gazette anymore. I suspect the Muslim approach and point of view is no longer welcome.”

September 2001 - Michael Goldbloom jumps ship at the Montreal Gazette, after seven years tenure, saying in no uncertain terms the move is due to the change in ownership, and the direction that CanWest Global is taking.

November 2001 - Peggy Curran writes a critical column on a CBC documentary about the treatment of journalists in Israeli territories. The column is first held, and then followed by a re-write order.

December 2001 - CanWest’s decree for “national editorials” is denounced by Montreal Gazette journalists, and is met with a formal letter of disapproval, bearing 77 signatures. CanWest media does not cover the story. Instead, CanWest Global issues a gag order and a warning to Montreal Gazette employees. It then extends the gag order to all print and broadcast newsrooms in Canada.

January 2002 - Stephen Kimber, a 20-year veteran with the Halifax Daily News, quits after CanWest Global kills his column that criticizes the company policies. Colleague Stephanie Domet, also has her column that supported Kimber spiked. She too, quits. Kimber is quoted as saying the Aspers view their newspapers as “promotional vehicles for their television network” and as “private, personal pulpits from which to express their views”. Kimber’s article was subsequently published in the Globe and Mail, where he wrote, “The Aspers support the federal Liberal party. They’re pro-Israel. They think rich people like themselves deserve tax breaks. They support privatizing health care delivery. And they believe their newspapers...should agree with them.” In this same month, David Asper is quoted in the Toronto Sun, describing journalists as “bleeding hearts” committed to the “ongoing pathetic politics of the Canadian left.”Donald Cuthland, an Aboriginal journalist, has his column in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix spiked due to it’s “historical inaccuracy”. Although he’s been an active columnist of the Phoenix for 10 years, the unofficial verdict on his work is that it was to “anti-Israel”.Vince Carlin, chair of the school of journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto is quoted by the Washington Post. “You can fit everyone who controls significant Canadian media in my office. This is not a healthy situation.”

March 2002 - The Regina-Leader Post suspends/reprimands 10 journalists for their by-line withdrawal protest of censorship. The International Federation of Journalists accuses CanWest of victimizing young journalists who defendprofessional standards. In a press release, the IFJ states: “If this had happened in Eastern Europe 15 years ago there would have been widespread protests from media owners and journalists’ groups. The issues today are no different - the fight for editorial freedom and protection from censorship.”

April 2002 - Bill Turpin, editor for 16 years at the Halifax Daily News, resigns. This decision was most influenced by the experiences of his former colleague, Stephen Kimber. Bill Turpin admits to spiking Kimber’s article at editor-in-chief Murdoch Davis’ request. He publicly admits his regret over the decision, and resigns.

May 2002 - William Marsden participates in a public debate about media concentration in Canada. He is issued an official warning, which cites Montreal Gazette and CanWest Global gag orders.

June 2002 - Russell Mills is fired from the Ottawa Citizen - he has been publisher there since 1986. David Asper fires him after he runs a series of articles on Jean Cretien, calling for him to resign. Mills files a wrongful dismissal suit, and settles out of court with the Aspers for an undisclosed amount. Russell Mill’s replacement at the Citizen has the job title “General Manager”.British Columbia: The voice of the outcasts

There have been a few local rumblings here in BC, mostly coming from small online publications like the Tyee (www.thetyee.ca) , which feature regular writers like Donald Gutstein. Gutstein is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, and as such he understands the necessity for accuracy in effective communication. In January of 2005, Gutstein worked tirelessly on making sure the ethical journalists’ opinion was heard at a senate inquiry into the alleged media domination in BC. He gave instructions in an online publication, on how other journalists could participate. The Tyee editor David Beers participated, but the senate inquiry came to BC and left without much fanfare or media coverage, which is exactly what CanWest Global had intended.
Mazen Chouaib of the Globe and Mail has a piece on CanWest’s vilification of Muslims on adbusters’ CanWest watch website. The webpage www.adbusters.org/metas/corpo/canwestwatch is loaded with strong language, relevant thoughts, and plans for revenge and exposure. The intent is expressed, to buy a full-page ad in
the Globe and Mail, detailing the media monopoly that has occurred here in British Columbia, where adbusters is based. Problem is, the ad will cost $60,000 and collections to date will only cover a fraction of the cost. Due to it’s relatively recent appearance on the magazine scene, and some would even say extremist content, circulation of the bi-monthly publication isn’t that large, an indication that hopes of penetrating the CanWest bubble aren’t going to materialize any time soon. In the meantime, adbusters website suggests “jamming” CanWest’s
newspaper boxes. If you have any better ideas on how to stick it to CanWest, you can e-mail tess@adbusters.org.

The corporate directors of CanWest have remained relatively unchanged since 2000, although the media landscape and it’s inherent purpose, flexes and bends beneath their influence. Israel Asper died in October of 2003, leaving the Asper legacy to his three children, and the corporate board he helped assemble. The annual shareholders meeting for CanWest Global was held on January 12 of this year, where the nominees for the board were essentially the same as they were before, with just a few minor changes. The yearly agenda also called for the reappointment of PriceWaterhouse, a long-standing partner, to continue performing the corporation’s audits.

The Players: CanWest Global’s Current Heads of State

Who makes up the rules, establishes policy, and goals for CanWest Global Communications Corp.? Although the Asper trio hold the lion’s share of CanWest Global’s worth, there are other integral members of the corporation, like the corporate officers and board members, who also have a stake in the future growth of the corporation. The mandates, the goals, the purpose of a corporation are all determined by the members of the board and the corporate officers, whether this corporation is a media provider or otherwise. To ensure the agenda of the corporation is met, the board members have direct and influential contact with their “ground troops”, the people that actually run the business, create and distribute the product. In this case, the “ground troops” happen to be newspaper editors, journalists, and pollsters. Let’s take a quick look at who all these essential and influential people are:

Leonard J. Asper, President and CEO
Leonard received his Undergraduate degree from the University of Boston, and later his law degree from the University of Toronto. He believes that big cities are not ideal places to live and thrive, and as such makes his home in River Heights, an exclusive neighborhood in Winnipeg. His wife Sue, and daughters Sarah and Olivia, enjoy boating from the family estate to The Forks when they can. When he’s not busy boating or attending to his empire, Leonard supports a variety of community organizations through his own personal foundation, which
apparently assists immigrants, aboriginal people, children, and abused women to name a few.
David A. Asper, Executive Vice President & Chairman, The National Post Company
David earned his law degree in San Diego, and has spent time in New York, Australia, Ireland and England, even living in London for two years. He also resides in the exclusive River Heights community of Winnipeg, with his wife Ruth and their three children. They are apparently active members of the River Heights Community Center.

Gail S. Asper, Corporate Secretary

Gale’s activities are primarily of a charitable nature, as she chairs the United Way campaign in Winnipeg
and co-chairs the Manitoba Theatre Center’s fundraising campaign. She has 2 sons with her husband, Dr. Michael
Patterson, who is a research scientist.

Dr. Lloyd I. Barber, Board Member
Dr. Barber taught commerce at the University of Saskatchewan between 1955 and 1976. In 1964-65, he
was a member of the Saskatchewan Royal Commission on Government Administration. As Indian Land Claims
Commissioner from 1969 to 1977, Lloyd Barber is known in his circles for his commitment to Aboriginals. He
received the nation’s highest civilian honor in 1993, the Companion of the Order of Canada. Along with his board
membership at CanWest Global, Dr. Barber is the current President Emeritus at the University of Regina, he is the
Director of Teck Cominco Ltd., Greystone Capital Management, and sits on the board of trustees at Fording Canadian Coal Trust.

Derek H. Burney, Board Member

At 66, Derek Burney is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of New Brunswick Power Corp. He is also visiting Professor and Senior Distinguished Fellow at Carleton University. He is currently the Lead Director at Shell Canada Ltd. and TransCanada Pipelines, Ltd. He is Chairman of the Confederation College Foundation and a Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. Previous to all his current obligations, Mr. Burney has been CEO of CAE Inc. (1999-2000), Chairman and CEO of Bell Canada International, Inc. (1993-1999), and Canadian Ambassador to the United States (1989-1983). From March 1987 to January 1989, Mr.Burney was
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s CEO, and was directly involved in the negotiation of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. He was Mr. Mulroney’s personal representative in the preparations for Houston (1990), London (1991) and Munich (1992) G-7 Economic Summits. His book, a memoire on his government service called “Getting is Done” was published in 2005 by McGill-Queen’s. Ronald J. Daniels, Board Member. A recent appointment to the board, and a recently named 28th Provost at the University of Pennsylvania, Ronald is probably best known for his various publications and active involvement in public policy formation. A Penn News
article from April of 2005 gives us the inside scoop: “At 45, he is an internationally accomplished scholar, who specializes in corporate and securities law, regulation and government reform, and the legal and institutional challenges of economic development.” Ronald is the editor/author of titles like, “Rethinking the Welfare State: The Prospects for Government By Voucher”, and “Corporate Decision-Making in Canada”, among others.
He really put himself on the map “in the wake of 9/11 [when] he spearheaded a major international conference at the University of Toronto focusing on the federal government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation.” He later published a book on the conference proceedings, published by the University of Toronto, entitled “The Security of Freedom”. It was given to every Member of Parliament.

Frank King, Board Member
As President and CEO of Metropolitan Investment Corporation, and Director of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Frank King is a busy man, and a relatively recent addition to this Players Club. On the Agrium management team since 1996, Frank manages to find time to direct Acclaim Energy Inc., Networc Health Inc., The Westaim Corporation, and Wi-Lan Inc. He is also a Trustee of Rio-Can Real Estate Investment Trust. Agrium happens to be a leading global producer of nitrogen fertilizers, and is a major retail supplier of agricultural
products (seeds, chemicals, fertilizers) and services in both North America and Argentina. Although Agrium’s headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta, it owns and operates 18 retail farm centers in Argentina.

Lisa Pankratz (CA/CFA), Board Member
Director and President of Cundill Investment Research Ltd., Lisa is also the CCO for all the operating companies comprising the Cundill Group. Since July 2001, Lisa has been the Director for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. She has worked as an investment banker with Banker’s Trust and Swiss Bank Corporation, and was a Senior Manager at Ernst and Young in Toronto between 1985-1993.

Backgrounders and Ground Troops: The Enforcement Team in BC

As previously mentioned, a successful corporation has intimate command of their ground troops, and may even have allies in the background, assisting with the corporate agenda. Here’s a few profiles on some of CanWest Global’s ground troops:

Frank McKenna, Canadian Ambassador to the United States
Former Chairman of the Board at CanWest Global, Frank had to abandon his corporate friends for an appointment made by Paul Martin in January of 2005, to the position of Canadian Ambassador to the United States. In a farewell speech to the shareholders in Toronto, on January 27, McKenna reassured “the Board and the controlling family” that he would “still be serving the shareholders of th[e] company, but in a totally different way”. Previous to this prestigious appointment, Frank had been on the following boards: United Parcel Services
of Canada Ltd., BMO Financial Group, General Motors of Canada, Marsh Canada Ltd., Noranda, and Zenon Environmental Inc. According to an article published in the Georgia Strait (January 2005) by charlie smith. These companies, including CanWest Global, donated a combined total of $1,203,555.83 to both Paul Martin’s leadership campaign and to the federal liberals as a whole since 1998. McKenna also sat on the Carlyle Canada advisory board with former US Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and former US Secretary of State, James A. Baker III., previous to his January 2005 appointment. The Carlyle group, based in Washington DC is notorious for it’s dealings in armaments, ammunitions, and products of war.

Daniel Savas, Sr. Vice President of Ipsos-Reid Corporation, Vancouver
Savas has been busy in Vancouver for a long time, working extensively at the Fraser Institute, and with the Angus-Reid Group. Kyle Braid is the mouthpiece of Ipsos-Reid Vancouver, and can be found interpreting polls in the Vancouver Sun more often than some would consider necessary. Both Braid and Savas are frequent faces in the Vancouver/British Columbia big business circle. In March of 2003, Daniel even gave a lecture on corporate responsibility at the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Leadership Summit Series. His lecture, called “Doing Good
Means Doing Well”, detailed the various economic advantages to building trust with one’s customers - the last reason he cited was “the feel good factor” which was related to corporate honesty.. The majority of his speech was devoted to convincing attendees that image maintenance is an important factor in overall economic success. (The entire speech can be viewed at www.boardoftrade.com/vbot_speech.)

Dennis Skulsky, President and Publisher, The Vancouver Sun
Dennis joined the Pacific Newsgroup in 1996, while it was still under the Hollinger umbrella, and occupied various corporate management positions for Southam Inc., a holding of Conrad Black. He is currently the Director for the Business Council of British Columbia and the Vancouver Board of Trade. He sits on various boards, including the Vancouver Fireworks Society, The International Newspaper Marketing Association, and The Canadian Newspaper Association. Rumors have been flying around that he might be leaving his post at Vancouver
Sun to head up Orca Bay Sports, which is owned by Francesco Aquilini and Seattle billionaire John McCaw. Skulsky has ruffled a few feathers at the Tyee, and Donald Gutstein can’t help but point out some of Skulsky’s more questionable alliances, primarily his publication’s alliance with Telus. Partners in the Fireworks Festival Society, and partners in other ways too it seems, Gutstein points out that Telus spends large advertising dollars with Skulsky. Interstingly, Skulsky’s publication conveniently neglected to mention much of anything on
the Telus Worker’s Union and their request for a fair collective bargaining agreement. Statistic on Vancouver Sun circulation, and access to the Vancouver Sun online can be found at www.canada.com, also owned by CanWestGlobal Corp.

Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, The Vancouver Sun
Kirk is the former Senior Vice-President of CTV, Vancouver’s only local alternative to CanWest Global’s local stations. Previous to this, he was Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Hamilton Spectator. He also worked as Executive Editor of the National Post after CanWest took it over entirely, helping to launch the daily national paper. Previous to his dedicated work with CanWest Global, LaPointe worked as a journalist and host for
a number of CBC Newsworld programs (1989-1995). While working at the CBC in 1991, Kirk was also Ottawa Bureau Chief and News Editor with The Canadian Press. After his stint with CP and CBC, he moved on to Editor-in-Chief and General Manager of Southam News, under Conrad Black. Today, Kirk can be found lecturing on his successes and his methods at the University of British Columbia’s school of journalism. Interestingly, Kirk’s employer gave the UBC school of journalism a fat installment of cash, following the supportive testimony of Donna Logan, the head of the school, provided to the Senate inquiry. He sits on the Board of the Center for Faith and the Media, and is a member as well.

Marlyn Graziano, Group Editor for CanWest Mediaworks Publications, Inc.
Marlyn used to be an editor at the Surrey Now in British Columbia, one of the small, local bi-weekly papers. Now she ensures the content of all the little bi-weeklies that CanWest owns here in British Columbia fall in line with the notion of one company, one editorial position.
When in doubt, when the Asper ideology needs some sort of promotion (or when she herself needs some sort of promotion), she appears in the local papers as a “guest editorial” writer. Most recently she appeared in the Surrey Now, in a guest editorial that served to disparage Gilles Duceppe, his ideas, and his presence at the national leadership debate.

From the Mouths of Horses: The Agenda of the CanWest Global Communications Corp. (in their own words)

“Big media are very good , there’s no connection between cross-media ownership and declining journalism, and convergence so far has been profoundly positive” - Kirk LaPointe.

(Originally quoted byGutstein in the Tyee. Response made during questioning by Senator Fraser and her colleagues during a 2005 inquiry into the concentration of declining diversity in Vancouver’s news media).

“The Company is unique among Canadian media companies in looking for growth beyond Canada’s borders and thereby developing an asset base and business structure that leaves the company less exposed to the ups and downs of Canadian economic cycles.”
-The Honorable Frank McKenna P.C., Q.C (closing remarks at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, CanWest Global Communications Corp. Toronto, Ontario. January 27,2003)

Select quotes from Leonard Asper’s speech, “Inventing the Future”, to The Canadian Club, Ottawa,

December 17, 2002

“Our detractors come from our competitors, the CBC, the Globe & Mail, and the Toronto Star and their minions and proxies, aided by disgruntled current and former employees and by the exhortations of anti-business academics. They just can’t come to terms with the notion that the media is a business and that owners of those businesses must treat them as such in order to attract capital...”

“And a few, disgruntled and opportunistic journalists who have been the subject of editing for many years long before CanWest came along, will no doubt continue to abuse the word ‘censorship” and thereby gain their 15 minutes of fame. It has been so successful for Stephen Kimber that now last week two journalists at the New York Times are claiming that the editing of their articles is ‘censorship’. I guess we no longer need editors, because they’re all just censors.”

“Professors at some of our journalism schools are repeating their 30 year refrain about the evils of media concentration.”

“Channel brand awareness will be increasingly important...Newspapers will continue to make the switch to a pay for use model for Internet-delivered content. The free ride is ending. Some content will remain free, but enhanced or premium content will be available only for a fee.”

“Peer to peer file sharing for video data is the greatest threat to the industry of all, because it could ‘Napsterize” traditional media... the wireless devices can all perform the simple task of transferring unauthorized material, much like one forwards an e-mail today.”

“Advertisers in general are demanding better targeting, and they also want to know how the recipient of that ad responded. Newspapers do this already too, in a crude way, by delivering different sets of flyers and inserts to different postal codes.”

“We are like the general contractor working with the designer and the architect, not the painter or the carpenter, hoping to get hired after all the material decisions have been made... We do this all in the face of daunting regulatory hurdles. While I am pleased to discuss the state of our industry it cannot be done in isolationof the regulatory infrastructure.”

“We are trying to gain the right to advertise prescription pharmaceuticals. CBS and CNN and NBC beam these commercials to Canadian homes... but Canadian broadcasters and newspapers cannot do so. This prohibits an estimated $300 million of revenue from reaching Canadian media companies.”

“We are in support of consumer choice as long as the opportunities and obligations are the same for all parties.”

“By introducing a national newscast reaching almost 900,000 people nightly, more that either of CBC’s national newscasts... CanWest has made an overwhelming contribution and added a refreshing and clearly popular new voice to the Canadian media landscape.”

“We are busy preparing for the future, and doing it the best way we know how - by inventing it”.
(You can view the entirety of this speech online at the Canadian Club of Ottawa website

Select Quotes from David Asper’s Speech, given at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, October 14, 2004

“The Hollinger Canadian newspapers acquisition[s] changed our company significantly...They gave us the scale and the clout to maintain out distinct Western identity and purpose in a media market dominated by Eastern-based ownership.”

“The Calgary Herald not only has a much longer history in the community, but it’s reach into the psyche of Calgary operates at a much different level than television... the very nature of newspapers [is] that they evoke much more intense and emotional relationships with our consumers.”

“Under Sifton, the Canadian government at last got serious about populating the west. While that story is very sad and full of painful periods of overt discrimination, it is also one of brilliant marketing. Some of it would never pass current federal and provincial regulatory standards!... Sifton saw western Canada as a commodity...so he embarked on an image campaign... He banned the publication of Manitoba temperatures abroad. He even purged all references to snow and cold in some official publications. And he took his message to
the world.”

“The premiere has decided that the media and the rest of Canada are out to get him, you and yourresource wealth... This is the same premiere [Ralph Klein] who, with all the positive innovation in health care that has occurred in Alberta, pulled the rug out from Stephen Harper in the federal campaign by giving credit to phony Liberal claims that Conservatives have a secret agenda on healthcare... Ask yourself whether Ralph Klein helped or hurt Stephen Harper in the federal election, and I think you know the answer.”

“Mr.Klein himself acknowledges that it’s not an issue, and nothing like it is even remotely on anyone’s agenda this side of Jack Layton.” (On the effects of the NEP)

“The federal liberals did a pretty good job in the last election of scaring voters to stay away from the Conservative Party. The Liberals version of ‘they are out to get us’ was that electing Conservatives would expel Canadians from their culture of entitlement into a cold dark world... To this end, the National Post fights its way every day to win over readers and bring them closer to [our] views... I am convinced that the National Post hasplayed an important role in re-defining the national debate, and I am very proud to be a part of it.”

“We openly debate the private delivery of health care while others condemn even the discussion of it. We discuss junk science and environmental issues while others cling relentlessly to trendy tree-hugging thinking. In case the premiere forgets, The Herald, Global Sunday, and the Post led the debate in this country on the question of whether Kyoto makes any sense while others turned it into the trend du jour... We debate the need for democratic reform including the need for a triple E senate."

“The same is true in the Herald. We have endorsed the Premiere all the way. Yet, he even attacks the local media in another delusional belief that his programs and policies do not get coverage... I won’t bore you reciting all the facts, but I can assure you that our media in Alberta have given the Premier expansive coverage. I mean the facts simply speak for themselves.”

Of deep relevance is the fact that Clifford Sifton was directly related with the construction of the Canadian coast-to-coast railway, and the rather ethnocentric but strategic treatment of immigrants at that time. The racist ideologies that prevailed then were effective for business profits, but restrictive and inhumane for those who were discriminated against. Most Canadians today would find such regulations and practices highly un-Canadian.

Fraser Institute, Reports and Press Releases.

“Climate change activists are exaggerating the certainty in the linkage between human action and climate change and advocating policies that offer no environmental gain, but a lot of economic pain. These prescriptions are likely to deprive society of the economic productivity it needs to protect environmental quality”

(Press release, July 21, 2003)

“A worst-case scenario report, long buried in the bowels of the Pentagon, has been dusted off by global warming enthusiasts in a last ditch effort to persuade the United States to repent and sign the costly Kyoto Treaty... The Schwartz-Randall climate report, indeed, is a purely speculative exercise in readiness planning for extreme climate changes of the sort seen in reconstructions of ancient temperatures. Many scientists saw the hyping of the Pentagon report as an eleventh-hour gesture by die-hard environmentalists to salvage the sinking
Kyoto Treaty on climate change, which has already been rejected by the United States and Australia, and is about to suffer the same fate in Russia.”

(Climate Alarmist Misrepresent Pentagon Report, March 10, 2004).

It is interesting to note, the Fraser Institute has received $120,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998, and has been the subject of much public criticism and scrutiny for it’s privately- funded “studies”. It has also consistently called for tax relief for corporations, so that Canadian taxes could be more in line with those found in the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner. Most recently, it called for the decriminalization of marijuana, the argument being that the illegal industry only served to fund organized crime.

Derek H. Burney on Canada-US Relations:

The following quotations were taken from two speeches given by Mr. Burney. The first, given on September 20, 2005 at the Canadian Institute of International Affairs Toronto Branch Reception, is entitled “Canada-US Relations: Weeds in the Garden”. On November 17, 2005 he gave a very similar speech, entitled “Canada - US Relations: Are we getting it right?” to the Ranchmen’s Club in Calgary, drawing on excerpts from his newly published book. Both of these speeches can be viewed in their entirety at:

www.carleton.ca/ctpl/publications/speeches.html.

“We should take our head out of the sand and reconsider our position on missile defense and endeavor, more generally, to become more than a spectator in the defense of our own continent...We cannot afford a free ride on our own defense. Where’s the sovereignty in that?”

“We need to stop ‘huffing and puffing’ over softwood lumber... Tough talk is no substitute for action... and the pretense of diversions to China are, as I said, just that... The Americans were ‘puzzled’ (diplomat speak for ‘mad as hell’) at our decision on missile defense. We in turn were ‘puzzled’ by their repudiation of a NAFTA ruling on softwood lumber.”

“The highlight for me personally and, I suspect the cornerstone of Mr.Mulroney’s legacy was the negotiation of the Free Trade Agreement in 1987... Mulroney worked very hard on his Washington network and on Canada-US relations... his persistence and conviction brought real dividends at the time, albeit without much domestic popularity.”

“Washington is a city of ‘retail politics’, where networking is the name of the game with the
Administration, with Congress, the media, the lobbyists and all others involved in the ‘’Power Game".

“Canadians celebrate our ‘differences’ almost as a litmus test or measure of our ‘distinctiveness’ from Americans, where as Americans tend, when they think about us at all, to see our similarities. Americans are proud of what they are: Americans. Canadians are proud of what they are not: Americans. Americans believe anything worth doing must be worth overdoing. Canadians believe anything worth doing must be worth a government
grant.”

“In networking - what life in Washington is really all about - my wife and I each had regular and extremely close personal contacts at the highest levels and with all branches of government.”

“...security and prosperity should be the over-riding priorities for our government and relations with the United States are critical to both... Some Canadians believe that creating differences with the United States underlies our ‘independence’. In fact, it does the opposite. ‘Independence’ is, in fact, a peculiar objective in an increasingly interdependent world. After all, North Korea is ‘independent’.”

“It is never easy, even in good times, to deal with the United States. After all, Americans are #1 and they know it...Drift, complacency, and a penchant for differences do not equate with good diplomacy, but regrettably, good diplomacy is not always good politics.”

“In order to manage our affairs effectively we do not need to endorse any individual leader or all the views of any Administration. After all, there are sharp differences of view inside America itself... while personalities come and go, interests are long-standing.”

“We should not rely exclusively on the goodwill of individual leaders anymore than we should allow our attitudes and our interests to be distracted by negative views about individual leaders at any given time... We could use more creative thinking and more consistent political leadership - a real sense of purpose from the top and actions reflecting conviction, not wariness.”

“I recognize that the current political climate is not propitious for any kind of serious engagement -especially with a minority government heading into election... If that is indeed what we want, we need torecognize above all that effective management requires leadership, conviction, and coherence.”

“Institutions properly structured with better rules and disciplines, can not only help deflect political heat from issues of the moment - such as a security glitch at the border - but also temper the huge power imbalance that otherwise bedevils this relationship. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”

“...stakeholders, particularly those of you in the business community should shake off your customary timidity and speak out. Business support - and that of key Premieres like Peter Lougheed - was vital to success in earlier trade negotiations, and could help restore a much-needed jolt of common sense in the management of our most vital relationship today. If you do not, you may be sure that others with a very different agenda will happily fill the vacuum.”

These quotes, as well as the previous ones, clearly indicate the sort of agenda that CanWest Global Communications Corp. board members have on their mind. Comments that were made by Leonard and David Asper to key shareholders demonstrate their ability and willingness to manipulate the content of their papers in order to advance a given agenda or a particular individual, provided it benefits the shareholders. Leonard Asper has explicitly stated that the corporation is about business, first and foremost. Freedom of the press and freedom of
expression do not apply to his business, as far as he is concerned. It’s obvious by these comments that shareholders at CanWest Global Communications Corp., and Stephen Harper and the Conservatives share the same agenda.

The ultimate goal of “anyone this side of Jack Layton” is the economic success of the corporation and it’s partners and affiliates. Not only is government involvement in CanWest Global Communications Corp. merely obvious, it is an integral part of the company’s agenda. So how do they do it? What makes them so sure that the polls are correct, that Stephen Harper is on the brink of bringing a Conservative majority into the House of Commons? A little crash course in social psychology answers all those questions.

Social Psychology 101: A Crash Course in Behavior and Belief Manipulation

Social psychologists are concerned with the social side of life, that is, how people interact with and think about others. (Remember, in North American society, the corporation is treated as an individual, and it’s image is managed as such). Scientists in this field work to understand “the nature and causes of individual behavior and thought in social situations.”. This definition was provided by a university-level textbook on social psychology, written by Robert A. Baron and Donn Byrne (2000).

There are a few major asserions that are generally accepted and recognized by all psychologists. One of these well known concepts is called the availability heuristic. A heuristic, in this case, is a mental shortcut that enables us to make decisions in a short amount of time, regarding things of a rather complex nature. The availability heuristic is “a mental shortcut that suggests that the easier it is to bring something to mind, the more frequent or important it is. Proliferation of like stories, polls, and pictures in the media which, all focus on a
particular phenomenon or individual, are likely to induce the availability heuristic.

Numerous studies have all come to the same conclusion: when making judgments about others (politicians and news providers, for example), we will tend to focus more on emotions and feelings, and as such will rely on the-ease-with-which-it-comes-to-mind-rule.
Certain circumstances can increase the likelihood of an individual making a particular choice. Priming is the result of increased / repeated exposure to specific stimuli or events, (graphic images, polls, photographs, etc.). Priming can be defined as “the increased availability of information in memory or consciousness resulting from exposure to specific stimuli or events. What this means is that the more we are exposed to the same information, the more likely we are to believe and use that information when making choices directly related to it. Priming
may occur even when individuals are unaware of the priming stimuli - an effect known as automatic priming.

Just because a person doesn’t buy the paper out of the machine every day, by no means indicates that they are unaffected by it. Interestingly, because of the surprise nature of inconsistent information, we pay much more attention to it. Because it’s unexpected, inconsistent information makes us work harder to understand it. Because of our increased
levels of attention on the inconsistent information, it has a better chance of entering our memory and subsequently influencing our later judgments. Who in British Columbia can forget the day when Stephen Harper appeared on the cover of the National with “Ricky” of the Trailer Park Boys, under a proclamation of familial ties!

Discrimination can also affect people’s perceptions and beliefs. It has been argued in the past that the language and terminology used to describe and communicate stories on ethnic groups within Canada are discriminatory, and that current word usages need to change. Old-fashioned, overt discrimination has beenreplaced with modern racism, which can be characterized by three distinct features. Modern racism is marked by a denial that there is continuing discrimination against minorities, an attribution of antagonism to the demands of
minorities, and resentment about special favours for minority groups. Numerous comments have been made, by various members of the CanWest Global Board, that fit neatly into this definition. The prejudices can beattenuated by gestures of tokenism, “the performance of trivial or small-scale positive actions for people who are targets of prejudice. Prejudiced groups often use tokenistic behaviors as an excuse for refusing more meaningful
beneficial actions. The charitable activities of the Asper family and other Board members might be considered by some to be examples of tokenism.

What is social influence? It’s “the efforts of one or more individuals to change the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behaviors of one or more others”. Individuals that change their attitudes or behavior in order to adhere to existing ideas are conforming. Conformity breeds cohesiveness, defined as “the degree of attraction felt by an individual toward an influencing group”. When cohesiveness is high, the pressures towards conformity are high. What this means is, as poll numbers in the papers reflect the dominance of the Conservatives, people feel
more pressure to conform to the majority, even if it is just a number on the page.

Why do people feel so inclined toconform? Because of social norms - nobody wants to be abnormal. Polls in the paper are essentially injuctive norms, defined as “norms specifying what ought to be done - what is approved or disapproved behavior in a given social situation. Various studies have proven that social norms, injunctive social norms in particular, exert strong effects on expressed behavior. In the case of political polls, they can exert a strong influence on people’s voting behavior.

Who are the compliance professionals according to social psychologists? People who’s success lies in their ability to get others to say yes. Robert Caldini studied these types, (politicians included), and came to the conclusion that compliance rests on six basic principles:

friendship/liking,
commitment/consistency,
scarcity,
reciprocity,
social validation, and
authority.

All of these basic principles, these goals of a successful compliance professional, can be met using strategic tactics of impression management, something which our friends at
CanWest Global (and their associates) have mentioned more than once. Here are a few of the tactics used by masters of impression management when they want to get others to say yes:

Ingratiation - a technique for gaining compliance in which requesters first induce target persons to like them (flattery or small favors for the target person), then attempt to change their behavior in some desired way.

“that’s-not-all” technique - the requester offers target persons additional benefits before they have decided whether to comply, or reject specific requests.

deadline technique - the target persons are told they have only limited time to take advantage of some offer or obtain some item.

playing hard to get - a suggestion that a person, object, or outcome is scarce and hard to obtain.

Sometimes, tactics are not enough to gain compliance, so individuals might demand compliance, obedience, that is. (For an excellent experiment on obedience in people, and how far we as human being are ready to go, look up Milgram’s studies on destructive obedience.) Milgram’s studies indicate that many people will readily obey commands, even from a relatively powerless source of authority, and even if certain commands require them to harm an innocent stranger. This would explain the mass obedience among CanWest Global’s
journalistic staff here in British Columbia, as they seem to have no problem carrying out the highly damaging agenda of the Asper family empire. Destructive obedience can stem from a number of factors, and can be exacerbated if there is “a gradual escalation of the scope of the commands given”, and if the situation proceeds in a rapid fashion.

In order to reduce the occurrence of this sort of destructive obedience, Baron and Byrne suggest “reminding individuals that they share in the responsibility of any harm produced, calling into question the motives of authority figures, and informing people of the findings of social psychological research on the topic of social influence.”

Conclusions: The Proof is in the Pudding

Although this review of evidence has been rather lengthy, careful consideration of the facts can yield no conclusion than the following:

There is the definite and undeniably detrimental presence of a media monopoly in British Columbia. Hard evidence of censorship can be found in the testimonials of various reputable journalists, and is further supported in the attached documentation. The views presented by all of CanWest Global Communications staff are guided by the ideologies and beliefs of the owning shareholders, and views that are contrary to this very narrow perspective are either ignored, or usurped and altered to reflect the Asper ideology. CanWestGlobal believes that their “news’ should not be free, and should only be available to those who are able to pay
for it. This monopoly and related censorship can be directly tied to the concise economic and political agenda that prevails at CanWest Global Communications Corp. This agenda, which includes increased involvement with the United States and their military pursuits, sees economic prosperity and national security and top concerns for any national government. This agenda most closely matches with that of Stephen Harper and theConservatives. Both David and Leonard Asper referred directly to this fact in their speeches. It is clear that Liberal loyalties are no longer paramount, and it is clear that in the eyes of CanWest’s shareholders, PaulMartin is not capable of maintaining adequate relations with the United States. The corporation has specifically put itself and it’s political interests on “this side of Jack Layton”, as well, leaving only one alternative.

Manipulation of the masses is possible, as was detailed in the section on social psychology. Various tacticsand image-management strategies are being used by CanWest Global Corp. to steer the direction of the coming election. The most obvious of these tactics is evident in the proliferation of polls from “trusted” sources, like Ipsos-Reid. Brand names and the emotional responses that are tied to them are of paramount concern for corporations. Honesty has never been a part of the agenda, so much as trust.

Compliance and consensus among voters is being obtained through ubiquitous use of polls, photographs, and stories, all which are strategically designed to encourage mass support for Harper. Shareholders admit to giving primary importance to strategical design of content in publications and media coverage. The domination and control of our province by this corporation must stop. British Columbia must have it’s Charter Rights restored. There must be a return to freedom of the press and freedom of expression. We want a return to national participation in national issues, outside of the bubble CanWest Global has encapsulated us in.
We have opinions and sentiments that have gone unreported. There have been huge biases and instances of gross misrepresenation, in stories related to visible minorities, single parents, child poverty, and the widening income disparities between the rich and the poor, just to name a few. It is not acceptable either provincially or nationally, for a private media empire to have so much influenceand sway in the outcome of a federal election. It is unacceptable for a corporation to control the mindset (imposed or otherwise) of an entire province. It is even more appaling that this has been allowed to occur, and it should have been stopped a long time ago.

Guns, Gangs and Drugs

2006-02-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

Guns, Gangs, and Drugs: StatsCan research suggests street crime problem will be agitated by proposed
crime reduction tactics
By Keetah Bryant

There is no argument that gun violence, gangs, and drug-related crimes have been on the rise in Canada’s
major cities. The various interpretations of crime statistics abound in recent media reports, but what everyone
seems to agree on is that violent crime and illegal gunplay are having a less than favourable impact on the lives of
all Canadians. This is precisely why crime and punishment have become major topics of the recent election
campaigns. Quick to lay the blame in the largely publicized death of Jane Creba, citizens are blaming a lax
criminal justice system, while politicians are quick to allay their fears with promises of beefed up police forces and
amendments to sentencing that some have termed Draconian.
It’s only natural in a time of grief and vulnerability to abandon logic, but it’s time to step back from these
emotionally motivated responses to crime and return to a more analytical approach on the issue of gangs, drugs,
and guns in Canada’s major cities.
To understand the problem, we need to understand the relationship between ice cream and violent crime.
Yes, that’s right. Ice cream. It seems that as ice creams sales go up nationally, the incidence of violent crime also
increases. Theses two statistics are positively correlated. From this fact, however, it does not logically follow that
a crack-down on ice cream sales would reduce the overall rate of violent crime across the country. Some other
factor is obviously influencing both phenomenon. In science, this is called the third variable.
The same can be said of gun violence, gangs, and drugs. By all indications, these social ills are on a
disturbing upward trend, that is, they are positively correlated. However, from this fact, it does not logically follow
that the prevalence of drugs and gangs are the causational factors in an increased prevalence of gun-related crime.
Perhaps, like ice cream consumption, there is an unconsidered third variable, or set of variables, that is driving up
the occurrence of all these phenomenon.
Is Punishment an Effective Means of Crime Control?
The existence of this third variable is not up for debate, which will be illustrated in later sections, but the
efficacy of harsh punishment and Draconian police tactics is. Newly suggested preventative and punitive
measures, aimed at restoring public faith in the criminal justice system, are currently being tossed around like vote
bait to a desperate Canadian public, one that has recently been steeped in fear and a feeling of vulnerability. If
enacted, such drastic changes in policy could divert countless valuable tax dollars into crime prevention strategies
that much research has indicated, are prone to failure. In fact, these very methods may even serve to exacerbate
the crime rate by further stressing public programs and resources in our highly populated urban centers.
Does punishment work? Most of us believe that it does, which is why we have come to employ such
methods in dealing with our children in schools, our pets at home, and our employees at work. Stuart Henry, PhD,
of Wayne University sees this belief in punishment as being based in two primary philosophies: (a) criminals
cannot commit crime while they are locked up, and (b) people who commit crimes deserve to be punished. In
reality, our belief in punishment has nothing to do with whether it really works in reducing the actual prevalence
rates of criminal activity. This begs the question: does incarceration of criminals decrease the probability of them
and their cohorts committing crimes in the future?
Studies indicate that some types of mild punishment can be effective in altering behavior patterns in both
human beings and animals. However, in order to be effective, punishment must be administered after each offence
with little time lapse between the offence and the application of the punishment. The effectiveness of this type of
mild punishment increases when pro-social behaviors demonstrated by the offender are positively reinforced.
What does this means in relation to our criminal justice system? In order for punishment to be effective, there
must be a high certainty of getting apprehended, which would require a highly present police force. Lastly, this
swift administration of justice is most effective if moderate levels of punishment are maintained.
Why moderate punishment? Various studies have demonstrated that severe punishment often leads to
avoidance or escape on the part of the offender. This can lead to a proliferation of more sophisticated and less
traceable crimes, as we have seen with identity theft. Harsh punishment can also foster aggressive behavior in
targeted offenders and their generalized social counterparts, who may not even be involved in the criminal justice
system.
Current moderate punishment applications are ineffective
So why isn’t it working? There seems to be a general consensus among Canadians that most current
penalties for crime are rather lenient. The question then becomes: why do these criminals keep re-offending if
moderate punishment is said to be so effective? Too answer this, more questions need to be asked, primarily about
the nature of given crimes, and, the socioeconomic features of the offending population.
These three indices of social degradation - guns, gangs, and drugs - are the central focus of this new,
tough stance on crime, and are inarguably related. According to an interpretive summary crime report, released by
the provincial government, from 1994 to 2004, 72% of all drug crimes in this province were marijuana-related.
Ian Mulgrew, a columnist of the Vancouver Sun, has recently been able to publish an entire book on this illegal yet
burgeoning six billion dollar industry. It’s not really a surprise that this might be the enterprise of choice for
today’s criminals who are a little less than Internet savvy, but are educated enough to assess risks, costs, and
benefits when developing an economic strategy for life in Canada.
Criminal Profiling
So who are these people, and why are they risking jail time and sometimes their lives in gang warfare to
have a stake in this growing underground industry, or any other criminal enterprise? To answer this question and
others that policy-makers in our country might have, the Canadian Center for Justice Statistics published a series of
profile reports in June of 2001. One of these ten reports examines “Visible Minorities in Canada”. Also of interest
are the report titles “Canadians with Low Incomes” and “Immigrants in Canada”. All these reports can be viewed
in full at www.statscan.ca. According to this statistical branch of federal government, as indicated by their chosen
areas of research, income levels, immigration, and visible minority status are all related to crime in Canada. These
reports, based primarily on the most recent census data, indicate that the visible minority presence in Canada has
risen from six percent in 1981, to the current rate of 11%; seven out of ten of these visible minorities are
immigrants. Most of these new citizens choose to make Ontario or British Columbia their home, and in 1996,
94% of all visible minorities lived in one of Canada’s major cities. This sector of the population is younger on
average than the rest of the Canadian populous, and most of them are living with family members - comparatively
few people of a visible minority live alone. They are also more likely to be university educated than the rest of the
Canadian population, of whom about 9% have completed a university program, as opposed to 19% of all visible
minorities. It also seems that a larger percentage of the visible minority population attends school, but somehow,
they are generally less likely than other Canadians to be employed. Only 65% of visible minority males were
employed in 1996, versus 74 % of the rest of Canadian males, aged 16-64. The approximate 10% disparity in
employment rates remains the same for the women.
Working less may mean earning less as well. Even though the educational qualifications of this cohort
are relatively high, their incomes are comparatively low. A visible minority person makes an average of $6000 less
per year than the rest of the Canadian population. In fact, if you are a visible minority, you are nearly twice as
likely as your neighbor to live in poverty, because 36% of the visible minority population in Canada lives below
the poverty level. It is interesting to note that in the United States, whose minority population shares many like
economic circumstances with it’s cohort in Canada, the prison population is a highly disproportionate visible
minority group. Here in Canada, Aboriginals and other visible minorities are highly disproportionate members of
our own prison system.
The changing face of the CMA (census metropolitan area)
A study released by Statistics Canada in June of 2005 states that crime rates generally declined throughout
the 1990’s. In fact “from 1993 to 2000, the overall rate of violent crime dropped by 9%”. The major conclusion
reached by this study is that “periods of inflation appear to be associated with financially-motivated crime” and
“throughout the 90’s when inflation rates were relatively stable, crime rates declined.” Good financial times equals
less crime, according to this study. But what if one particular group of people in Canada were constantly under
financial duress? Could that have anything to do with the increased prevalence of crime among a certain
demographic?
Andrew Heisz, of the Business and Labour Market Analysis Division of Statistics Canada issued a report
in September of 2005 to expose some key insights into the trends and conditions that have been observed in
Canada’s major cities. This of course, was done using a variety of statistics on the nation’s cities, using census
data. He begins the report by announcing that growth in the Canadian population, by 55% (1.6 million people)
between 1981 and 2001 was largely due to immigration, and this “growth...caused the CMA’s boundary to expand,
[and has] formed challenges for the delivery services, and placed strain on the labour market.”
This report is divided into a ‘top ten list’ of insights, a majority of which deal with some form of
inequality or fundamental economic transformation within Canada’s CMA’s. One such transformation involves a
rise in the services economy, coupled with a complete decline in manufacturing in some areas, like Toronto and
Vancouver. This shift from manufacturing to services primarily benefits workers with more education.
Immigrants in the CMA’s
Most newly arrived immigrants choose their place of residence based on the fact that family and friends
will be living close by. In Vancouver, 64% of the entire population were first or second generation immigrants in
2001. In Toronto, indications are much the same, and projections suggest that this number is on the rise. It is
projected that in 2017, the percentage of immigrant population in Vancouver and Toronto will be 44% and 49%
respectively - that’s nearly half the total population.
Heisz concludes the section of the report focused on growth by saying, “Rapid population growth because
of immigration may place stress on the provisions of public services, such as education, and public transit.”
Statistics Canada has released an independent report covering this topic specifically (89-613-MIE-No.3).
The economics of immigration
“A substantial body of research has shown that the economic welfare of immigrants deteriorated over the
1980’s and 1990’s”. This is the opening line of the labour market analysis, which also points to a downward trend
towards poor outcomes for all new labour market entrants. The report states that “in Toronto and Vancouver, the
employment rate fell substantially only among recent immigrants...” in major cities between 1981 to 2001.
Many immigrants find work only on a part-time basis, or for part of the year. Even if they have a
university degree, immigrants are much more likely than their Canadian-born friends to be working in a job that
requires no formal education. In fact, 31% of recent immigrants with a university degree find themselves
employed in jobs requiring a low level of skill, and this is even more likely if they are female. Between 1995 and
1998, male immigrants earned on average 60% less than comparable Canadian-born workers in their first years
working in Canada.
All of these statistics point to a rather obvious and readily demonstrable increasing disparity among
Canadian families. During the 1990’s, incomes fell for most lower income families, and rose for most
higher-income families in a majority of Canadian cities. Low-income rates, as previously mentioned, are higher
among visible minorities and immigrants, Aboriginal people, and single parent families. Because of this, they are
disproportionately represented among the working poor. On average, the people in these groups have incomes less
than half that of the average Canadian. Conversely, the gap between rich and poor neighborhoods is also growing.
In Toronto, over the past 20 years, the average family income in the poorest neighborhoods rose only 0.2%, while
their richest neighbors enjoyed a 23% increase in annual income. Even though these poor neighborhoods exist,
according to 2001 data, over 33% of city dwellers are renting homes they can’t afford.
Perhaps the picture gets too bleak, perhaps the funding runs dry. Whatever the reason, the last few pages
of the report offer less researched effects in the CMA’s, such as disparities in the administration of health needs,
commuting and transportation obstacles, as well as environmental and infrastructure issues. The full report
entitled “Ten Things to Know About Canadian Metropolitan Areas...” can be viewed online at www.statcan.ca.
The Facts
It’s no secret that the crime stories of recent times have focused on Indo-Canadian gangs, and the black
street gangs in Toronto. When determining the opinion of Canadians on various crime prevention measures, the
Ipsos-Reid pollsters even made the suggestion of targeting certain ethnic groups for possible civil liberty
restrictions in the name of proactive crime prevention. Over 30% of those polled agreed with enactment of such
measures, if necessary. So it would be nothing new to say that we as a country see gangs, drugs, guns, and certain
ethnic groups as all being interrelated. It would be naive to suggest otherwise, given the ethnic and socioeconomic
composition of our institutionalized population. That being noted, why do these criminals do what they do? Can
anything be assessed from the general statistical position these various ethnic groups occupy within our country?
What do these data suggest?
When planning strategies to effectively deal with crime in our large metropolitan centers, the statistics on
these social infractions need to be consulted, and the recommendations made by paid government researchers need
to be heeded. Canada does not need another Jane Creba, caught in the crossfire of something it seems even her
government does not have the insight to understand. What Canada needs is an accurate understanding of the
context behind the crime, a complete picture of the average Canadian criminal.
From this statistical exploration, it can be understood that most criminals are young minority men, whose
cohort have a better chance of possessing a post-secondary education than the average Canadian. Even if they
don’t have an education, more visible minorities are pursuing an education than the rest of the Canadian
population. These young men and women, although highly capable, face barriers in securing employment. If and
when they are able to find a job, it is usually one which requires few of their educational skills and pays very little
in comparison. The employment available can be spotty, often part time or only for certain parts of the year. A
large portion of minority families live below the poverty level because of these challenges, and according to
government reports, it’s only going to get worse. With inflation and populations on the rise, and income levels
that have remained stagnant for the past twenty years, visible minorities in Canada are facing an even tougher
battle. Many find it difficult to support their families, their wives often earning less than they do. Difficulties in
obtaining adequate child care or supervision for older children is common. The expense of out-of-school-care and
extracurricular activities often cannot be met, leaving children to fend for themselves, sometimes adopting a gang
as a surrogate family. Many new immigrants and visible minorities attend post-secondary schools to improve their
chances of economic success, but graduate only with debt and a job that can’t pay the bills.
Punishment is only effective if potentially offensive behaviors are warded off by positive reinforcement,
when subjects behave in a prosocial manner. People need to reap their just rewards when they follow the socially
prescribed course of action. Judging by the economic situation of a large portion of visible minorities in Canada,
and given their high levels average of education, there is clearly a lack of any real positive reinforcement for the
majority of them who attempt to engage in prosocial behavior.
These facts should be cause for concern for all Canadians. The ramifications of a population explosion on
the delivery of essential services could prove to be brutal. British Columbians have already dealt with the
consequences of dissatisfied teachers, in part due to overcrowded classrooms, and we Canadians have heard a lot
about the current stresses on our health care system causing unimaginable waits for those in need of surgery. In
order for sustained and stable economic growth to continue here in Canada, there must be a corresponding growth
in our population. Without large numbers of immigrants entering into our country, economic growth would not be
possible; the rate of population growth would become insufficient to sustain the economy.
Are we as Canadians prepared to deal with the undeniable consequences of our fast-paced economic
growth in urban centers?
The Future
Potential leaders of tomorrow ought to be listening. Voters in Canada need to be educated when they
make their choice on election day. Suggestions of costly prison terms and more police may be a quick and easy
political manoeuvre under the bright of the media lights, and under the pressure to prevent more innocent deaths,
but all the options and their consequences must be evaluated. Could money used to incarcerate people be used
more effectively?
Government reports project that in 2017, nearly half the population in our major city centers will consist
of immigrants. Add to that the already existing Canadian citizens that happen to be visible minorities, and the face
of the population is in for a drastic change. The visible minority is becoming the visible majority. According to the
statistical projections, there will be more poor, educated, visible minority people than ever before in this country.
By that time, as the numbers suggest, they should be even more impoverished as a group than they are now, facing
ever-growing obstacles in obtaining perhaps even basic health care and education.
If crime control strategies continue in the direction they’ve been taking, the inevitable shift in population
constitution to a comparatively poor visible majority might prove to be more of a challenge than anyone might
have originally anticipated.. Best to ban those handguns now, or it might start to look like a revolution.

Can I get a capital B for Black?

2006-02-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

Media Usage of Dated Ethnic Terms Archaic and Offensive
By Keetah Bryant (FRL)
In my personal experiences as a university educated, visible minority, single mother in Canada, I have
found the reflection of our society provided by the media to be highly inaccurate. There continues to be fast-paced
demographic changes in all of Canada’s major cities, yet the media it seems cannot keep pace with this change.
The views presented, the presenters, and the topics covered, both in daily papers and television programs are all
representative of a more nostaligic and ethnocentric era. Bad enough that this lag in development is still evident in
government, but in the media too? The modern population, it’s constituents, and the corresponding concerns are
all going unnoticed by the very institutions the Canadian public have come to trust as pillars of truth and
representation.
Where are the visible minorities? Where are the stories and analsyses that are directly related to their
position in society? Surely there is something more to say about this growing segment of our population, other
than the familiar and redundantly thoughtless stories on group specific criminality and gang involvement. These
consequential fallacies are what prompted me to apply my knowledge in social sciences to the world of journalism.
This road has been far more diffiult that I ever could have imagined. One of the first challenges to ethical
and representative journalistic practice is found in the standardized guidelines for journalists in Canada.
The Canadian Press (CP) began in 1917, the same year the University of British Columbia first opened
it’s doors. The role of the Canadian Press, has grown and changed since it’s inception to include a broadcast
division, Broadcast News(BN). According to Eric Morrison, president of CP/BN, The Canadian Press “provides
service to private television and radio broadcasters, as well as audio to Internet sites and wireless services”. With
this vast influence, apparently CP is able to “tell[s] people the story of their country every day, in all forms and
from all corners of the land”.
It’s a nice thought, but actions speak louder than words. In order to accurately tell people of Canada the
story of their country, you must include all of them in it - in the creation of it, in the telling of it, in the guidelines
covering it’s production. It appears CP has done nothing to ensure the participation of all Canadians in this very
crucial process, even though it purports to represent us all.
I myself am of mixed ethnicity; Ukrainian-African to be precise. But wait a minute, according to the CP,
there’s generally no need for “hyphenated descriptions of race”. I might also call myself Mulatto. But wait a
minute, according to the CP, the words “black, mulatto, red, yellow and white” do not name “race” and are
therefore lower case.
In the CP stylebook, the “bible consulted by journalists”, the section entitled “Race” mentions to “let
people speak for themselves”. The people have been speaking, and no one is listening.
The fact that the term “race” is still in use by an organization that apparently sets the standard for
journalism in one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world is an embarassment. I believe we all belong
to the human race, we just happen to be of different ethnicities. The word “race” connotes some fundamental
difference in quality between one type of organism and another. CP, by it’s definition and use of the word “race”,
has contributed to an erosion in “black” identity. By determining that the words “black” and “mulatto” are not
terms of “race”, CP has served to diminish the importance of the ethnicity and culture of “black” people in Canada,
an ethnicity that continues to exist despite the definitions and lack of capitalization. These are the definitive
guidelines in Canadian jouranlism, taken straight out of the most recent edition of the Canadian Press Stylebook.
It’s ethnocentric and archaic.
I do not find it acceptable, that because I am the descendant of slaves, taken from Africa, that I should not
be entitled to an ethnicity. Why is the only identity available to me one that starts with a lower case letter? Why is
it that the Canadian Press has determined for all black Canadians that they have no ethnicity status, and the only
way they ought to be identified is by the color of their skin? If I cannot claim mixed race status, if I cannot call
myself mullato, Ukranian-African, but merely “black”, can I therefore choose to call myself Caucasian instead? I
am, after all, half white. Can I assert my whiteness? Can I respond to census questions on ethnicity by calling
myself Caucasian? Would that eliminate the adverse social conditions that I have to face because of my difference?
Would it be a useful distinction in understanding the unique and changing face of the Canadian population?
The words people choose, or are given to describe themselves, are more than mere physical descriptions.
Ethnic terms assist individuals and groups in forming unique positive identities within this multicultural nation.
In Canada, there are Asians, Aboriginals, Indo-Canadians, Quebecois, Caucasians, Europeans, and blacks. No one
would ever think it politcally correct to call an Asian person by their most physically differentiating feature.
Women might think sometimes about calling men by theirs, but that would be considered derogatory. What makes
it any more correct to identify an entire class of people strictly based on the color of their skin? This type of
discourse the norm in Canada, in the papers, on the television, and most sadly, among the “black” people of this
country. CP has determined this is the only acceptable way for “black” Canadians to define themselves, and I find
that inexcusable. How can we as a people form a positive identity around the mere color of our skin? The time for
using the word “black”, to identify people has ended. Change is always difficult but most often necessary, and in
order for people to evolve, their discourse and their language must do so first. This is Canada, the destination of
the Underground Railroad and international leader in multiethnic unity - can we do away with the slave talk,
please?
From this point forward, I should like to inform the Canadian Press, it’s affiliates and supporters, that I
personally find it offensive to be identified as merely “black”. For anyone of any skin tone to be defined merely by
such a superficial differentiation is offensive, and quite frankly, very ethnocentric. My skin is not black, it’s
brown. I have freckles and green eyes. I have Ukrainian family and family of African descent living in this
country. Both sides of my family have been living in this country for four generations. I am not merely ‘black”,
thank you.
We all know that the people you call ‘black” originated in Africa, just as Japanese people originate from
Asia. We are of African ancestry, we are not just “black”. I am a human being first and foremost, but it seems we
live in a time that differentiations have been deemed necessary. If I must differentiate myself from the rest of my
fellow human beings, the members of other nations, and the rest of unblack Canada, then I chose the term
Afro-Canadian, because I have an identity beyond the color of my skin, as does the rest of the Afro-Canadin
population.

The Rant of 2006 - The State of Our Union

2006-02-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

The State of Our Union: The Rant of 2006

January has not been a very good month for me (nor was it any kinder to many of our other fellow citizens
around the world). It blew in fiercely with the shooting death of Jane Creba in Toronto, which then proceeded to
whip into a storm, amidst our federal elections and the accompanying declarations of mandatory sentences, hand
gun bans, and increased border security. It was at that point that I felt something was going really wrong with
2006, that somehow we’d gotten off to a very bad start. I’m sure Paul Martin and Ralph Goodale would agree, that early January was when it all started to go downhill.
I’m not an idiot or an ideological zealot of any kind. I mean, I attended post secondary school for a total
of seven years, full-time. I accumulated an incomprehensible student loan debt while I also struggled in the
shadows of illegal (and sometimes shameful) activity to support myself and my son as I went to school . I still
lived below the poverty level. I learned from first-hand life experience, and from the teachings of my school
professors that the current prison system is ineffective, and that stiff penalties for crime do nothing to deter it, and
may even exacerbate it. I’ve also been reading for the past six months on the practices of journalism. Blindly
patronizing the independence-killing Chapters, I purchased books on how to break into the writer’s world, here in Canada. Apparently, a novice freelance journalist begins with the local newspapers, submitting pieces that follow the guidelines of the Canadian Press Stylebook. (This irritatingly authoritative instructional manual is now in my collection of ethnocentric texts that require a 21st century overhaul to reflect the diversity and equality, however elusive, that apparently represent Canada).
So I began to write. I did my research with Statistics Canada, consulted the opinions of numerous experts,
and crafted a highly-logical and immediately relevant piece based on my knowledge and research, and related it
directly back to the current situation at hand in our country. Assured that it would assist voters in making a more
informed decision by revealing the hidden complexities between crime, ethnicity, poverty, and systemic biases, I
gladly sent the piece off to a number of publications both here and in Toronto. A week went by with no response. I was checking the papers daily, and then on Friday I saw that the argument was to be presented in the Vancouver Sun’s Westcoast Weekend edition, by some tenured columnist at the paper. The revised article revealed none of the unpalatable truths presented in my submission, but rather altered the argument to support an entirely counterproductive approach to crime. (This is a very long story, and for those of you who are interested in the contents of my submission, or the details of my heated e-mail conversations with Editor-in-Chief of the Vancouver Sun, Patricia Graham, please, e-mail, call, I’ll tell you all about it).
To make a long story short, I started to do a bit of investigation as to why the media here in BC is so
blatantly one-sided. I stumbled upon Canada’s conspiracy theory of the new millennium, with more than enough
evidence to back it up. This evidence (garnered from public, government, and private sources) concerns
high-ranking government officials, large corporations, and partisan participation in backroom government
operations. I even found actual speeches made by these “players” where they openly implicate themselves in the
manipulation of public opinion and government policy creation.
There was no where to send the information here in BC - the media lock-down was already in place.
(Once again, for the complete set of details, information, research, etc. involved in this grand conspiracy theory,
please call or e-mail me, and I’ll find a way to get it to you). During this time, I had also applied for a job at the
CBC, the only viable place I believed to be remaining, for ethical journalism to thrive. I sent them the information,
all of it, as a part of my resume. I sent the information, all of it, to a lawyer in Toronto who apparently works to
protect minority rights within society and the media. I sent the information to Gilles Duceppe. I photocopied it, I
bound it, and I sent it overnight delivery to all of these places. As of yet there has been no response from any party that has received this crucial and highly relevant information. All of them have the power to act, none of them chose to do so.
When Hamas won the elections in Palestine, I was shocked and hopeful for the people of Palestine - with
their choice came the hope of a future, free of occupation. At the same time, it dawned on me, that Hamas winning would be terrible news for the rest of the mass-socialized Western clan. But I had hope. I stayed tune. Maybe the leaders of the Western world would, as they should, accept what democracy has produced and work with it in the spirit of global diversity, choice, and cooperation. I should have known better than to hope.
It’s no wonder no one wants to run the Liberal party these days. Who needs a party affiliation, or even a
political one? Heck, people like Derek Burney, a key corporate member of BC’s media giant CanWest Global, and key member and lecturer in numerous energy and defense corporate boards, can just walk in, and advise our new leader of “transition” actions behind closed doors! Who needs government with power like that??? Even the previous front-runner of the Liberal leadership race, Frank McKenna, could tell you that. Rub elbows at a few major corporations for a number of years, have those corporations make contributions to the Liberal party and it’s election campaigns, and suddenly Paul Martin’s appointing you Ambassador the United States. Frank McKenna has plenty of friends in high corporate places, and judging by the looks of our government and it’s actions, that’s where all the power is anyway these days. And there are people who know this besides me, and no one chooses to do anything about it.
Last night’s “State of the Union” address by the American president had me drinking Malox like it was
our rapidly disappearing fresh water supply. And of course, there’s Canada’s Stephen Harper trying to play
“first-rate” here in Canada, racing to keep up with the proverbial US Jones’ by altering military chains of
command and wasting no time in establishing more Canadian military muscle, both at home and abroad. Oh yes,
let’s not forget his balking at the Kyoto accord either, which would ensure Ralph Klein and his fossil fuel rich
Alberta could keep burning and selling the quickly disappearing commodities (coal/oil) for centuries to come. We
are starting to look like Americans in training.
I sat tonight, in front of the TV as I most always do at 5 PM, and watched one of my favourite programs
on the CBC, with George Strombolopolous. I watch it more intently now, wondering if the program got my job
application, if they’ve even read the things I’ve sent them. There’s a lot of new ideas on the show, good
perspectives that seldom come out anywhere but on the CBC. After all, it was the CBC, not any other network,
who gave me the most unbiased insight into the Hamas/Palestine/Israel/Gaza Strip situation. They seem to be the
only ones left.
I sigh to myself as George interviews a television personality in front of a commercial newsstand. The
camera shifts from face to face, as they exchange thoughts on Hamas, Stephen Harper and Oprah. In the
background, there’s People magazine with Jennifer Anniston on it, there’s Oprah’s “O”, there’s a dozen other
repulsive pop-culture titles with shiny gloss covers of skinny girls with too much paint on their faces, and there’s
George and his guest empathizing with the plight of the Palestinian people, all the while not wanting to appear as
if they had taken any side. In between what seemed to be purposely featured magazine covers (Forgive me if I’m
wrong, but this is how it appeared, and if this is the case, it can only mean that the CBC is having to accept
corporate funding to run their programs, and as such it might be governed by a corporate mandate as well,
regardless of what is written or what is purported about our public media devices). were the blue glimpses of
Adbusters latest magazine, “The Biggest Ideas of 2006”. (Everyone in the world should read that magazine, and it should also be less expensive. Just my opinion.)
The program faded in and out of my conscious awareness, as I sat through a star-studded commercial for
Motorola, and then another ad for Cialis (which happens to be a drug which assists men with their
non-functioning, flaccid penises when they would rather have them otherwise). This is on our PUBLIC
TELEVISION NETWORK. If you’ve read Adbusters latest issue, or if you’re anyone with any sort of concern for the future of our society, the fact that these sorts of things are occurring on our ONLY public broadcasting stationis cause for outrage and grave concern.
In a world where we struggle to free ourselves from mental pollution, when we are struggling to gain
clarity and insight into situations and events, how can we possibly be effective if our sources of information are
polluted as well?
On the National, they are currently running a story on a well known, well respected doctor in Canada
who was awarded the Order of Canada, based on his extensive and influential research into health, nutrition and
immunology. The only problem is, that most of Dr. Chandra’s research is fraudulent. The university which
employed him to teach the next generation and to do research, will do nothing about it. The federal government
will do nothing about it. Nationally recognized, Dr. Chandra contributed to Canadian society by falsifying
research to allow nutrition and pharmaceutical companies (including his own) to exploit the purchasing public.
(This sort of story does nothing for the opinion of Indo-Canadians held by some Surrey residents. My friend
believes that most Indo-Canadians are corrupt and will do anything to beat the system, yet the individual knows
little of the poor economic situation faced by a large number immigrants and visible minorities in Canada today,
regardless of the their high levels of education. The individual perceives only the increase in numbers of
Indo-Canadians in their community, while also knowing little about government quotas that need to be reached in
order to sustain Canadian economic growth. This half-blind perspective is enhanced by the proliferation of the
gangster/villain image of Indo-Canadians constantly portrayed in our local papers and news media. This is where
a lack of valid and pertinent information is damaging to society, and the concept of censorship by omission should
not be disregarded by ethical journalists).
Here’s an idea: there are a plethora of post-secondary institutions here in Canada that require funding to
survive. There are a plethora of people in this country who are willing to do almost anything for a buck, especially if they don’t get caught (this is not limited to criminals, but includes doctors, lawyers, educators, journalists, pollsters, CEO’s, etc., really anyone who’s been born into this capitalistic society, that values wealth above all else). There are a plethora of pharmaceutical and food companies who are willing to pay big bucks for the right kind of information, especially the kind of information that will give them an edge over their competitor or allow them to begin selling their product without further regulatory hassles. The mentality exists in this country, and others, that profit is the primary concern. This means it is placed above the health, safety, and welfare of others. Profit is the only concern.
In between the news stories like the one on Dr. Chandra, the CBC runs those make-me-puke “Cialis”
commercials. It is up to the viewer to decipher the hidden meanings, the elusive truths, the lies, the theories, the
seemingly obligatory promotion of one thing or another. The CBC has lost it’s explanatory power, it’s value to the nation and the common people, by falling into the hands of corporate controls and mandates, and by not explaining to their viewers that they have been forced to do so, due to lack of government funding.
Sure, you can argue that it’s a necessary evil, something required to keep the non-partisan programming
flowing, but no evil is truly necessary. Do we as Canadian citizens who work 8-10 hours a day, who are burdened with debt and already mistrusting of our government, need to be responsible for solving the riddle presented in the mixed messages sent to us by the CBC? Is there not the individual or united power of those working at the CBC to inform the Canadian public of the adverse effects (on people, their minds, families, environment, etc.) of the global corporate mandate that seems to be turning us all into monothinking sheep? Can’t we all admit that we have been adversely affected by this and that something must be done to bring about lasting change?
It seems rather obvious and simple on the surface. Media, publications, politicians, speakers, whoever...
they are all either talking from the left or from the right, or maybe somewhere in the middle, but generally (unless
you’re the ever underrepresented NDP) either they are conservative or liberal in their views, yes? I say NO.
The idea of Conservatives, Liberals, two-party systems, I am going to assert, are all illusions. They may
have functioned some time earlier in history when resources weren’t as scarce and populations were less polarized by superficial and financial differences, but not anymore. They currently serve to provide our society with the illusion of having a choice, with the illusion that the values of one party or another actually stand for anything tangible. This illusion of free choice assists in the proliferation of the corporate mandate, which really couldn’t care less whether you take communion on Sundays or frequent your local swingers club with your underage sex partners, as long as you support the ideologies, institutions, and political leaders that will ultimately lead to corporate profit. The new divide is not between people and people, between right and left, between liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, environmentalist or oil main.. The divide is between profit and people.
From now on I propose a more honest party system, if it is to exist at all. If it’s corporate interests you’d
like to serve, take up a gold membership with the Profit Party. If it’s the interests of your fellow man you serve,
join the People Party. Suburban icons of political independence like Chuck Cadman could enter into the People
Party, with folks like Mother Theresa, Jack Layton (if he means what he says), Gilles Duceppe, and other socially
conscious folk. Then, for the others who have no concern for the future, future generations, environmental
impacts, ethics, or anything else that gets in the way of them and their corporate buddies earning exponential
incomes at all costs, we will have the Profit Party. (I personally would nominate Hemptown, and it’s CEO’s that
used to work for Nike and Adidas during the heyday of ignorance and silence about sweatshops, to lead the Profit Party. It’s a stellar example of a corporation that relies on it’s pseudo-social responsibility to prey on People’s desire to make the right choices, both globally and locally. It’s one of those corporations that’s leading the way with marketing in the 21st century, designed to make those who hate to buy, buy. Read all about them, their corporate policies, and all the fine print that makes them exempt from any sort of responsible behavior on their website. Just so as you know, I happen to own a few articles of Hemptown clothing - I do not pretend to be immune.)
Based on this new system of categorization, it would be far easier to solve world problems, find unity
within and without borders, and actually get on with the business of running the planet and sustaining societies.
The beauty of this new conceptualization is that is can even be applied retroactively to countries, people,
organizations, and their actions in the past.
Sifton? Obviously he belongs to the Profit Party because he built the railroad and industry in British
Columbia at the cost of immeasurable suffering and pain on the part of people. Trudeau? He belongs in the People Party, for his brash associations with other People Party supporters. This same logic can also be applied to the actions of individuals, groups, or countries. All you have to do is merely ascertain whether the action was
undertaken to help people, or to further a profit aim. Things can get a little tricky when you look into situations in
the Middle East, often because the Profit Party likes to disguise it’s actions as pro-People, in order to garner the
popular support of the larger, yet more destructible, and easily emotionally influenced People Party.
It seems as if the CBC has been usurped by the Profit Party, and is being turned against loyal People Party
members in an effort to confuse and control them. In order to maintain the strength of the People Party, I would
ask that those people who work at the CBC, find it within themselves to recognize their duty to the party of their
birth, the People Party. We ask that they do whatever is in their power to educate and liberate members of the
People Party that have been caught up in the same web that they now find themselves.
Although we of the People Party may be poor, tired, exasperated, confused, scared, reactionary, or
ignorant, we require those of you who are not, to help us find our strength. For those of us who have strayed into
the seduction of the Profit Party at the expense of our fellow citizens in the People Party, we ask you to reconsider. There is no room for People when Profit has had it’s way with our world. The People Party is deteriorating and fragmenting at a faster rate than ever before, spurred on by the pervasive and divisive forces of mass propaganda and increasing disparity.
The People Party is not based on exclusion, stratification, or discrimination. It includes men, women, and
children, of all ages, ethnicities, shapes, colors, and sizes. It includes sick and healthy, rich and poor, Muslim
Christian, Buddhist ,Jew, Animist, Tribalist - you name it. The People Party consists of Blacks, Caucasians,
Asians, Arabs, Africans, Latinos, and all human beings from all corners of the globe. Do not be fooled by cheap
imitations, that come in the form of exclusive and rigid institutions and ideologies, that work to seduce members
away from the People Party. Do not fall prey to any form extremism, exclusion, isolation, domination or slippery,
self-centered legitimization - these are the tools of the Profit Party and have no place among People. Be wary of
falling prey to the stereotypes, structures, and institutions that the Profit Party impose upon your life. Scour your
texts, your newspapers - monitor all your sensory inputs for evidence of the Profit Party and it’s permeating
ideological mandate, and guard against it.
The best defense against the destruction of the People Party and it’s accompanying habitat (our planet), is
awareness, openness, honesty, empathy and respect. With these five defenses in place, with these open unbiased
eyes that look both to the past and to the future, we of the People Party can guard against any further assaults on
our psyches, and hence our unity, and we will be in a position to grow in strength and numbers in the coming
years. There is no room for error, no excuse for failure in any action you take. Every choice matters, and it is up
to each and every one of us to make a difference, and begin to chose people over profits with every breath we take, every need we fulfill, every desire we have, and every luxury we indulge in.
Do not despair if mistakes are made, or have been made in the past. With each mistake comes a valuable
learning experience which always brings knowledge and understanding upon acknowledgment. The key is in the
acknowledgment.
What do we need to acknowledge? Have we as Canadians been far too long venerating the actions of our
forefathers in settling this land? Have we acknowledged and repaired our mistakes with this country’s true people, the numerous First Nations tribes across the continent? Have there been instances in the past where we as Christians have killed and conquered in the name of our God? Would Jesus have approved of that? Would it not be fair to assume that terror begets terror? That hate begets hate? Do not we as Christians, we as Muslims, we as Jews, all share the same fundamental belief that “thou shalt not kill?”
Questions like those can be difficult for everyone, especially when we are all responsible. But the
questions need to be asked so that the answers will begin to lead to workable solutions for all the world’s People. Denial, avoidance of consequences, and comfort above equality and reality, are all a part of the corporate ideology that runs so deeply through our nation. I can take solace in the fact that I am not the only female to feel insecure without makeup. We can take solace in the fact that it is no one individual, religion, political system, or nation, that is responsible for the current state in the world.
The most difficult thing to reckon with however, is that we each have an individual and personal
responsibility in correcting the mistakes of our forefathers. We urgently need to begin thinking, speaking, and
acting in a new, sustainable, and completely inclusive manner, that is free from stratification, domination, and
righteousness.