Chomsky on Canada

According to Chomsky, “Canadian mining operations are just destroying large parts of the world.” He said that “Canada is trying to take the lead in destroying the possibility of decent survival: that’s what it means to exploit the tar sands, and the gold mining in Colombia, and coal mining, and so on…. That means destroying the world in which your grandchildren might be able to survive: that’s the Canadian idea now.”

Dear America

When I came to this continent I met Ralph Waldo Emerson

and society as a home built by friendship 

and barns built by community.

Jobs for and with people — but you were awed by capitalism 

the transcendence of economy above sentiment, 

fantastic things, celebrity, the remaking of men 

and woman — a toy to play with

that only a few souls could influence.

The universal church of screens, talking heads and red lips, 

new words for new meanings, crash and bang 

you made it up and presented us with Jesus the superstar 

and Trump the christ — in the new world anyone can be 

a balloon floating on air and who needs real people 

when you can turn it on and turn it off again

but we cannot escape the meaning of this wizard who replaced 

shamans, kings and emperors with prisons for profit.  

Let them eat candy floss.

While the great fascists of Europe were fed oil and gas

you were singing in the rain and loving Lucy and we 

lapped it up like cream and sugar allowing Albert Einstein 

and Hannah Arendt to teach truth which nearly caught on
until the next economist came out with new puffs

and by then we were marshmallow chums

singing kumbaya around the campfire

more fun than British Bulldogs

(bobby sox were not for the stiff upper lip)

and those hippies knew how to put an end to war

until the neo-liberal economy crossed out

every living thing from the Amazon Forrest

to the orca whale and all that remains

is the lizard brain and far-sighted raptor.

Neo-nazi’s, I suspect,  are supported by two camps 

those afraid the people will create a new future

and those traumatized before they met tenderness.

Now the continent must be returned

to the earth and its inhabitants

or wordless bonfires without borders

will finish the game.

Quilt of Belonging A Place for All Documentary

Thanks to Germaine Kovary who introduced me to this  documentary which lasts 47 minutes - it is a good description of who Canadians are.

New Political Party starting now

Planet Earth Party

According to the Beaverton "OTTAWA – Elections Canada is issuing a special warning to all advocacy groups that they should not issue any scientifically verifiable facts during the election that would interfere with Canada’s democracy."

After reading about the ban on climate change discussions at Election debates I have started a new Political Party.  It's called Planet Earth Party.

I am currently looking for people to join and someone to lead the party. If you are interested send me an email here: Planet Earth Party.  State your manifesto, your name and your experience as a citizen of Planet Earth.

The first point on our mandate will be to make it illegal to talk about anything that does not relate to a sustainable future on this planet.

This may sound extreme but we believe that any politics that does not benefit all of humanity is dangerous.

We do not care how you dress, what language you speak, the colour of your skin, where you were born, whether you are skinny or fat, or even if you can hold an argument.

A manifesto will be written and publicized soon.

If we get elected we promise to care more for this planet and all its sentient beings than any other issue, and we shall make decisions based on that value.

The Issue is Structural Violence

"The constitution outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada" Wikipedia.

The law of the land is like a tapestry where new items are added and some old ones deleted.

Values like fashions change. People change. Countries change. Change brings fear and tension. The greater good for all, as boring as that sounds, moves up and down the chart of priorities like the stock market.

Countries, religious institutions, and parts of our civil society may dismiss what is good for all for the sake of their own interests.  Workers are expected to be loyal to the corporation they work for, to be team players, to show willing regardless of how comfortable they are with changes.

It is expected that we do not bring shame to our family, religious congregation, club or profession.

We are to achieve standards recognized as high by the tribe. But there is always the threat of failure: being homeless, alone, hated, cast out - even though you cannot control all circumstances no matter how much education or diligence you possess.

Competing demands take us beyond the law of verifiable existence, beyond what we have learned through our own experience or character. However we are caught in the doctrine of a capitalist system which emphasizes profit as the proof of success. Jobs and the economy are needed to buy food, clothing, and transport. And all this demands a proscribed appearance of "normal'.

Life looks like a series of battles to win, the need to be "seen" as powerful in a system invested in making you feel powerless.  The greater good gets lost in the details.

We are trapped. How can we survive when all we depend on comes under the jurisdiction of other forces? How can we work for sixty hours a week and admit just how fragile we are? Even the unemployed and the poor are working hard to survive, to appear "normal".

Where do we get to actually live, to consult our heart and soul, when such concerns have already been dismissed as sentimental and our appetites unrealistic. When do we get to invest in building character rather than the self-improvement doctrines from other "experts".

Turning to the wisdom of ages through religion, science and history does not offer absolutes as they change with the centuries. The bible is a big book and covers all the contradictions imaginable:  racism or agape, obedience or compassion, acceptance of  poverty and suffering yet disdain for the poor and feeble, working for peace yet glorifying violence.

Returning to the Law of Verifiable Existence (LOVE) brings the law down to my level, to my emotional intelligence with the skills I possess and knowledge I have. I put myself on the table, in the street, at the hall and the voting polls. I take responsibility for what I consume. Cynicism and despair, criticism and sarcasm, are not the ultimate responses to this world in which I must dwell. The world is not out there - it is the hope for my grand-children, the support for theirs. The world is the ultimate theatre of my time and resources.

Winning and losing is a shallow measure of who I am and what my life is about. The GDP is simply the measure of a capitalist system. If the law does not have compassion or courage or morality, it is a living hell. The law and our constitution is the written agreement on how to love life.

LOVE is not just a personal and private relationship, it is the primary condition of our lives.

Desmog Reports 10 Handy Facts About Canadian Energy

James Wilt reported in Desmog Canada a brief list of facts from a larger report by David Hughes. Here are the brief facts:

1. Canada uses a massive amount of energy
2. There’s an incredible amount of hydro power in this country
3. But we kind of suck at non-hydro renewables
4. Industry uses most of the energy in Canada
5. Western Canada is littered with an unbelievable number of old wells
6. The oilsands still produces some of the highest carbon oil in the world
7. Alberta is receiving astonishingly little return on its oil
8. Fossil fuel jobs are also surprisingly low
9. Meeting climate targets is going to be nearly impossible with oilsands expansion
10. We need to rely on facts to guide us forward

From Peggy Mason of the Rideau Institute on Non-Nuclear Proliferation

"I am writing this blog post not only as RI President, but as a former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to the United Nations.   I had much direct experience of negotiations with Iran, in the context of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review process and in many other arms control negotiations at the UN.  Of course that was at a time when Canada’s foreign policy was not based on much sound and fury and little substance but, instead, on a steadfast commitment to, and demonstrated talent for, diplomacy as the means to achieve the peaceful resolution of disputes, as the UN Charter obliges member states to do." - See more at: Ceasefire.

Track Changes

Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Aboriginal Women: "reviewed 58 reports dealing with aspects of violence and discrimination against Indigenous women and girls, including government studies, reports by international human rights bodies, and published research of Indigenous women's organizations. The reports cover a period of two decades. (They) found only a few of more than 700 recommendations in these reports have ever been fully implemented." 

Harper's record of refusal: An Act of violence against Indigenous Women. Muskrat Magazine, rabble: "Since 1996...over 40 reports have been delivered to the federal government calling for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.  In August 2014, the premiers of Canada also called for an inquiry stating there are two possible routes to getting a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women: Prime Minister changes his mind and calls one -- or he is defeated in the 2015 federal election." 

Globe and Mail Editorial February 1, 2015; "Prime Minister Stephen Harper never tires of telling Canadians that we are at war with the Islamic State. Under the cloud of fear produced by his repeated hyperbole about the scope and nature of the threat, he now wants to turn our domestic spy agency into something that looks disturbingly like a secret police force." 

Letter to PM Harper from Ralph Nader, Rabble: "Particularly noticeable in your announcement were your exaggerated expressions that exceed the paranoia of Washington's chief attack dog, former vice-president Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney periodically surfaces to update his pathological war mongering oblivious to facts -- past and present -- including his criminal war of aggression which devastated Iraq -- a country that never threatened the U.S." 

ICBC may withhold licence for outstanding court fines, student loans in default. CBC: "The provincial government has proposed legislation to expand ICBC's ability to refuse driver's licences to those in debt.The insurance company is already able to withhold licences from people who owe money, such as toll fees, but the new bill — if passed — would be a "last-resort measure" to collect on outstanding court fines or student loans in default." 

There are many voices of reason from individuals and groups doing all they can, with very small budgets, to influence their governments.  What must be really clear to any concerned and thinking person is that those who hold the highest seats of power  like presidents, prime ministers, and CEO's of large corporations, do not appear to be providing leadership at all.  It's as if holding power is not compatible with social responsibility. Or the media feels its not in their best interest to report when these officers do consider the greater good. That, in fact to do real leadership for their constituents, to do what is wise and responsible, to do what we expect of adults, is likely to cause their downfall. That once they have won their seats they must be obsessed with holding onto their power by any means available.

Social responsibility is not seen to be the concern of prime ministers, presidents and CEO's. Somehow the building and maintenance of order and justice must fall on the citizens, sometimes sacrificing their own lives, to defend society, or to re-build their own structures of governance.

Power without social responsibility and justice is not leadership, and therefore not legitimate power.

Orthodoxy of War

On Canada’s military contribution to the campaign against Islamic state, Peggy Mason of the Rideau Institute said:


"We’re playing a symbolic military role, [within the context of ] a very short-sighted military strategy, when what we could be doing is playing a much more meaningful role in the broader political strategy that must be put in place if we are going to have anything other than a very long conflict, a quagmire."


Why would that be? Why would the federal government want to play a "symbolic" role instead of attempting to bring peace in such a dangerous area. How would we or the government of Canada benefit by this? What are we trying to attain?


William Astore in The Nation lists seven reasons why America will not be ending war anytime soon. That is to say that Washington intends to keep the war going on for as long as it can.

The reasons given in this article, are the privatization of war, embrace of the national security state by both major parties, "Support Our Troops” as a substitute for thought, fighting a redacted war, threat inflation, defining the world as a global battlefield, and the new "normal" in America is war.

We have seen how our federal government is eager to support Washington wherever it can.

The purpose of war is not to defend the people of a nation but simply to enable the war industry to get rich while the citizens, or taxpayers, pay for it with money and the lives of their children.

Andrew Bacevich writes in Tom Dispatch from his book How Washington Rules:


"By temperament and upbringing, I had always taken comfort in orthodoxy. In a life spent subject to authority, deference had become a deeply ingrained habit. I found assurance in conventional wisdom. Now, I started, however hesitantly, to suspect that orthodoxy might be a sham. I began to appreciate that authentic truth is never simple and that any version of truth handed down from on high -- whether by presidents, prime ministers, or archbishops -- is inherently suspect. The powerful, I came to see, reveal truth only to the extent that it suits them. Even then, the truths to which they testify come wrapped in a nearly invisible filament of dissembling, deception, and duplicity. The exercise of power necessarily involves manipulation and is antithetical to candor."

Rather than a global threat Peggy Mason reminds us that we are fighting civil wars in other nations and: "The way you end these civil wars [is] not through a military victory …[but] through the negotiation table. There is no solution here without dealing with Assad, and the only way to deal with Assad is to negotiate with him."

Which do we want? For the future of our children and the future of our planet? Peace or the threat of oppression by the centralized power of the arms industry.

Murray Dobbins - a prophet for our times

I really appreciate the way Murray Dobbins observes and analyses what is happening in Canada.

He reveals how the neo-liberal market ideologies have diminished our democracy through corporate funded think tanks.  We have had " four decades of systematic assaults on the liberal/social democratic state". This began with a series of complaints of an “excess of democracy”.

Now we live in a time of  "democratic deficit" and "a decline and erosion of democracy that should be the most important focus of critics and citizens alike".

A major study sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre reports that this erosion of democracy "has put western civilization on a track to irreversible collapse. The study focused on population, climate, water, agriculture and energy as the interrelated factors that determine the collapse or survival of civilizations going back 5000 years."

You can find many more on Dobbins blog here: Murray Dobbins' Blog

Plutonomics

"Ajay Kapur, global strategist at Citigroup, and his research team came up with the term “Plutonomy” in 2005 to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality. According to their definition, the U.S. is a Plutonomy, along with the U.K., Canada and Australia." Robert Franks. 

Read more here.
Read Edward Fullbrook here. 
Or rational wiki here.

In France, the U.K., and the U.S., the share of total income currently appropriated by capital is thirty per cent. The top 0.1 per cent of income earners own twenty per cent of wealth. The top one per cent own 40 per cent. The top ten per cent own 80 to 90 per cent. The bottom 50 per cent own a mere five per cent of wealth.

Al Engler - Capitalism actually widens economic disparity, rabb.ca.

"It's about common goals, not colonial guilt"

Eight Ways to Take Part in Idle No More

By Jess Housty, 19 Jan 2013, TheTyee.ca

Idle No More

Idle No More Mission

Idle No More calls on all people to join in a revolution which honors and fulfills Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water. Colonization continues through attacks to Indigenous rights and damage to the land and water. We must repair these violations, live the spirit and intent of the treaty relationship, work towards justice in action, and protect Mother Earth. On December 10th,  Indigenous people and allies stood in solidarity across Canada to assert Indigenous  sovereignty and begin the work towards sustainable, renewable development. All  people will be affected by the continued damage to the land and water and we welcome Indigenous and non-Indigenous allies to join in creating healthy sustainable communities. We encourage youth to become engaged in this movement as you are the leaders of our future. There have always been individuals and groups who have been working towards these goals – Idle No More seeks to create solidarity and further support these goals. We recognize that there may be backlash, and encourage people to stay strong and united in spirit.

Throughout centuries of invasion, war, racial supremacy and exploitation, we have come to a cliff where we must ask ourselves what we want for the future.  A livable society where we learn how to live creatively and inclusively, or a society of fear, dread and a slow lingering death.  

Idle No More, calls for a return to conscience, to nature and justice.  Chief Theresa Spence is putting her life on the line, so that we might wake up, pay attention to the true cost of rapacious capitalism and blind consumerism. The First Nations are teaching us to care about our home, this planet and its peoples.

For Word Warriors

Write don't shoot.

Write your concerns about the future of Canada, to news outlet editors.

Murray Dobbin has published a list of emails to editors across the nation.

Other than filling up the inbox's of busy editors it will not damage the environment.  It will not cost anything other than some of your time.

Jean Crowder defends funding for the CBC

Below is a message from Jean Crowder, sent in response to my letter regarding the funding of CBC. Re-printed here with permission:

Good Morning,

Thank you for your recent correspondence concerning the future of CBC/Radio-Canada, and for your continued advocacy on behalf of a vigorous public broadcasting system. Heritage Minister James Moore’s recent musings about a 5% cut to CBC/Radio-Canada’s total budget represent the latest in a series of statements and actions which confirm his government’s ambivalence to public broadcasting.

In contrast, my New Democrat colleagues and I believe strongly in the importance of public broadcasting to help promote Canada's cultural identity and linguistic and regional diversity, both at home and abroad. Today’s unprecedented deficit may not permit immediate large-scale funding increases, but my colleagues and I are committed to provide stable, long-term funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, and to depoliticize the funding process by making permanent the Corporation’s annual funding allocation.

CBC/Radio-Canada took action to address a persistent deficit in 2008/09, reducing overhead costs by $171 Million – an ambitious voluntary reduction in excess of 10% of the Corporation’s annual operating budget. Even before this display of fiscal accountability, per capita spending on CBC/Radio-Canada lagged far behind that in other developed nations. For instance, the UK spent over $124 CAD per citizen on the BBC, while France’s public broadcaster received $77. In contrast, CBC/Radio-Canada’s allocation of $33 per Canadian is woefully inadequate.

My colleagues and I have proposed the following plan to enable CBC/Radio-Canada to strengthen critical components of its operations:

· Strengthening accessible local news service in rural Canada, vigorous regional programming and minority language broadcasting

· Revitalizing infrastructure to compete in the media marketplace of the 21st century

· Supporting the expanded production of compelling original Canadian content, and

· Continuing efforts to ensure transparency and fiscal accountability to taxpayers.

 As we move into the new session of Parliament, the New Democrats will redouble our efforts to protect and build upon the legacy of this important Canadian institution.

 You may be interested in a recent petition I presented to the House on September 28, 2011 :

 Mr. Speaker, the second petition has to do with the CBC.

The petitioners say they love the CBC and call on the Prime Minister to reaffirm the importance of the national public broadcaster.

Further, they call on the Prime Minister to provide the CBC with adequate financing by raising the CBC's parliamentary grant from the current levels to $40 for every citizen, in keeping with the recent recommendations of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

 Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with me. With your continued support, we can ensure that when CBC/Radio-Canada celebrates its centenary in 2036, it remains the strong, vigorous and dynamic national institution Canadians overwhelmingly want it to be.

 Sincerely,

Jean Crowder, MP Nanaimo-Cowichan
101-126 Ingram St., Duncan, BC, V9L 1P1

www.jeancrowder.ca