Makes sense - they had already "softened" their image from "mercenaries" to "contractors." Wolf in sheep's clothing? One must wonder where they got the sheep skin from.

Do you know that while Canadian and American soldiers are training the police in Afghanistan, that Blackwater is training Canadian (and, possibly American) soldiers?

From Question Period:

Mr. Claude Bachand (Saint-Jean, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, not only are Saladin Security and Blackwater not recommendable, but the competence of the personnel employed by these companies is very questionable.

It is so bad that, last year, Blackwater was forced to dismiss 122 employees, mainly because of inappropriate use of their weapon. The American lieutenant colonel who spoke to the Washington Post said that these sad individuals shoot first and ask questions later.

Does the minister not find it scandalous and unethical to have Canadian soldiers trained by such mercenaries?

Hon. Maxime Bernier (Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, for the embassy in Kabul, we hired security officers who conduct their operations like all security officers. These are not military-style operations.

That being said, we care about our diplomats and the Canadians who visit the embassy in Kabul, and we want to ensure their safety. Those people are well trained and perform the duties of security officers.

Mr. Claude Bachand (Saint-Jean, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, those agencies are unsafe, not only for the protection of our diplomats, but also for training our soldiers.

Given all these allegations, is the minister not left with only one choice here this afternoon, which is to immediately cancel the Blackwater and Saladin Security contracts? The minister must promise to table them in this House, so that we can examine them. Will he have the courage to do so?

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2&DocId=308569...

vaudree,
good idea re Valerie,
nope missed question period this week.

Found a great article on Blackwater which I call
Changing the graphics of big game hunters.
and don't you just love that word scrubing.

"Blackwater Softens Its Logo From Macho to Corporate
"..the company's roughneck logo — a bear's paw print in a red crosshairs, under lettering that looks to have been ripped from a fifth of Jim Beam — has undergone a publicity-conscious, corporate scrubbing." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/business/media/22logo.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=...

Colleen, I will cut and paste your post in WP. If you see me again on another thread, just remind me and I will respond to it.

"Divine Providence" is another way of saying that something is fate or inevitable. Harper believes that it is inevitable that the Free Market will run supreme.

Trade between Provinces:

Note that Harper talks about "globalization of markets" and "free trade" (think NAFTA) among our provinces and says that the solution is the "federal trade and commerce power."

Some provinces run their own automobile insurance program and some provinces have a bunch of private automobile insurers. Those that run their own program are the only game in town. When Harper talks about "Free Trade" between provinces, he is talking about either allowing for profit companies to compete with the province owned company (called a Crown Corporation) or of getting rid of Crown Corporations altogether.

The same goes for Hydro - the Manitoba government owns Manitoba Hydro, but in other provinces private companies own their hydro resources. Harper would prefer that Manitoba Hydro be divided up and sold to private for profit corporations.

Manitoba Hydro is a Crown Corporation. We sell hydro electricity to California and it helps fund our social programs. Every time someone in California uses Manitoba Hydro, we get more money for health care. Manitoba Hydro charges Manitobans less than what we charge the Americans. However, we are still cheeper than the other Private companies on the market.

Manitoba Hydro will take in your old Christmas lights and give you a $5 coupon off on LED Christmas lights. What pisses me off about that is that the string that you exchange for $5 has to be WORKING.

What does this have to do with Wright and Benjamin? The SPP is all about harmonizing both trade and immigration.

orphan.

Penny Priddy is the NDP Public Safety Critic. Maybe we need to get her to ask the right question of Day on Monday. Don't know who the Liberal or Bloc critics are on this issue, and don't think that it is really all that important to them. BTW, did you hear the Bloc questions on Blackwater on Thursday?

Parliament Hill:
835 Confederation Bldg
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Tel: 613-992-2922
Fax: 613-992-0252
priddp@parl.gc.ca

Constituency:
14045 - 104th Ave
Surrey BC V2T 1X4
Tel: 604-586-2441
Fax: 604-586-2445
priddp1@parl.gc.ca

Other NDP members speaking out about this issue are Olivia Chow, Libby Davies, Paul Dewar, Dawn Black, and Alexa McDonough

Go to the NDP webpage, click on "our team" then "our caucus" and then on any of the above names.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said, "we have very distinct guidelines of who may come into the country and who may not. We exercise those vigorously for the protection and for the interests of Canada, and we will continue to do that." [http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/270460]

For those with the time and inclination I suggest a polite inquiry be send to SD. One might ask him a range of questions about guidelines and ones potential eligibility in entering Canada re jay walking to parking offenses and every misdemeanor one might imagine or have committed.
His riding relies heavily on tourism, as a year round convention centre, international hockey schools etc. If you could relate your concern to potentially utilizing any of the local resources that would be a plus.

www.stockwellday.com/

The Honourable Stockwell Day, P.C., M.P.. Public Safety Minister [www.stockwellday.com/]

In Ottawa:
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: 613.995.1702
Fax: 613.995.1154
Email: day.s@parl.gc.ca

In the Riding:
Suite 202, 301 Main Street
Penticton, BC V2A 5B7
Phone: 250.770.4480
Fax: 250.770.4484
Email: days1@parl.gc.ca

bodicca: What is this "freedom" that "they" hate us for?

The freedom that we are taking away from them. The freedom to send Blackwater in and Blackwater's freedom to do what they want.

White Rose: You remind me of how someone on rabble described Mulroney's Eulogy for Ronald Regan. In that fashion.

cromerovich, the same tent holds a variety of opinion. James Loney was supposed to speak at a social justice conference put on by the Catholic Church, but some members complained and his invitation was withdrawn. Some Catholics are upset at James Loney's exclusion:

http://thomhartmann.org/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=4831010351&f=4851097651&m=6891019582&r=6891019582#689101958...

Americans, you remember an American Hostage by the name of Tom Fox who was murdered in Iraq. Well Tom Fox was part of Christian Peacemakers along with James Loney. James Loney, a Catholic, kept his common-law husband a secret while he was in captivity.

It is a bit different situation than what Wright and Benjamin are facing, but it is a silencing just the same.

BTW - How do you retrieve a post that was some place (ie this thread) for a bunch of hours and then was completely deleted? I answered Colleens questions and she should have those answers. I will modify it in any way they ask to give Colleen because if you ask questions you deserve answers.

Nightwatch October 26th, 2007 11:51 am wrote:

"The Conservatives are a minority in Canada's Parliament but, unlike other minority governments, they are behaving like a majority because the opposition in Parliament is weak and fragmented."

That sounds familiar.

It is the intent of the "right" to criminalize behavior way beyond the present norms. Once we're all "criminals" then that will lead the way to taking away our equality and we will become a subclass of Americans with diminished rights and recourse.

What is this "freedom" that "they" hate us for? BushCo, in cahoots with the Canadian government has destroyed the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and is goosestepping us on our way to a fascist dictatorship. Before-it-stool-ate is either a very seriously deranged product of a dumbed-down school system or a Republican shill.

Vaudree:"By "faith based politics" do you mean that no one religion should dominate or do you mean that a person's positions on certain issues, such as peace and human rights, should not be influenced at all by one's religious beliefs?"

The former. I realise I am on shaky ground here as there are no absolutes; everything is relative. I apologise for any ambiguity; I have absolutely no problem with religious dress in any form that I have seen so far. Everyone has a religion in some form and that will influence everything they do to some degree. I have no problem with what I would call any moderate religion as they seem to have convergence on things we all generally agree on in society e.g killing is bad, be honest, help your neighbour etc. etc. Most religions speak in metaphors and where I have a problem is with extremist religions with literal translations of directives from 2000 years that advocate discrimination and death to non-believers and encouragement of apocalyptic triggers. Even then as long as those beliefs do not influence foreign policy and as a politician the country comes first, people as individuals are free to believe whatever they want. With Harper, he comes first above all, religion and ideology is in a sense second and I believe a vector for him and Canada is a very distant third. Watch out if he ever gets a majority. I'll take any party just to get him out.

Nightwatch: The centrist Liberals, the 'Natural Governing Party', is in disarray after being laid low by corruption and they have a weak leader.

What makes the right of centre Liberals so natural! Remember that it was under Martin and Cretien that Maher Arar was detained to begin with. Despite the rhetoric, don't fool your self!

scottstlouis: "24″ is a fictional tv show. It shouldn't be used to form one's foreign policy opinions.

How come a whole post of mine that was up last night is gone? There was nothing offensive on it!

Colleen, I addressed your questions.

True. But do you know who Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather is. Now he knew the proper way to run a minority government!

commander_n_chimp:

You're an idiot; Nader voters are the responsible voters, Gore voters are the useful idiots. Your problem is an absolute failure of analysis. Gore is an imperialist swine as Clinton was, just a softer version of Bush. You don't understand that for those of us that actually think, Gore was not an option. Neo-con Chimperor McFlightsuit only hastened the inevitable track of neo-liberal policies implemented by corporate democrats and republicans alike.

re:beforeitstoolate,

"24" is a fictional tv show. It shouldn't be used to form one's foreign policy opinions.

How do you pronounce that one bloggers name:" be for it stool ate" Sounds anal to me. Or him I just miss understanding something here?

Don't mean to address this troll, but if what he said is true, and stats show only 32 US soldier deaths in October and 65 in Sept compared to 126 in May, he may be right that there wasn't much going on for him there, but there were 406 Iraqi deaths and 345 wounded in the last week.

The big question is why aren't they doing anything? There appears to be plenty to do.

Regarding the article, all this is well known by now. Anyone who watched Fahrenheit911 saw who the Admin considers the real threat, and the wiretapping started before 911 so this should all be obvious. What is curious is why US citizens aren't appalled to the point of serious outcry. Until that happens, you have two arenas to direct your disgust, the Govt. and your head in the sand neighbor. If both of those fail then this country is lost.

Col. Wright will undoubtedly get some media traction out of this, but the only way the capitoil pigs will cut back on their repression of non-violent dissent is if they are sued every time they violate someone's constitutional rights. Even then, it is presently worth the out of court settlements to the power brokers to arrest-detain-release anyone who goes against the grain of the warring class, if they can keep the story low profile. When incidents like the detention of Col Ann Wright in Canada (at the request of the FBI) make it into the public awareness, then the corporate-capitol junta has to stay up late at night devising more elaborate schemes to delude us. They are sleep-walking a frayed tightrope in a hurricane, and when they fall they die. The whole world is watching with bated breath.

What this nutty White House has done to America is laughable. "Watch Lists" and "No Fly" lists?
America, you should see how quickly "the republican party will fly" when propelled by the tip of your foot applied to the seat of their pants. Guarantee that would be worth watching; and they will definitely make the "Will Fly" list!

Detained at the Canadian border because she is on a US no-fly list? Where did she fly from then?

"beforeitstoolate" would be better known as "shakinginmyboots". Fear is his chief emotion, as it is for most of the war defenders. "Beforeitstoolate" can sleep if he thinks himself a tough guy, but he's really afraid that Osama will slip an icepick into his ear, or that he might have to trade his Hummer down to a bicycle, or that an Hispanic family might move in next door. Those with real courage don't need to ride Harleys or breed pitbulls or wear clothing made from the flag. To seek the truth and then to speak it in an unsympathetic venue calls for more guts than poor old "beforeitstoolate" could find in his quaking belly.

Welcome to the new world order, "they can't explain" my ass.

Jake October 25th, 2007 4:21 pm

Thanks. Much appreciated!

Why are we "exporting democracy"? Because it sure isn't wanted HERE!

I should ignore the troll called 'beforeitstoolate', but here goes anyway -
"Bomb 'em back to the stone age" so troglodytes like him can have company ? (don't want to insult the Neanderthals by comparing them to beforeitstoolate)
The US nuking anybody would make it "too late".

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/troglodyte.htm

cromerovich: Faith based politics never works

By "faith based politics" do you mean that no one religion should dominate or do you mean that a person's positions on certain issues, such as peace and human rights, should not be influenced at all by one's religious beliefs?

cromerovich: I am a firm believer in the separation of politics, religion and also education. Faith based politics never works and education should be open and neutral. Religion outside of that is fine.

That is the argument France used when they try to ban girls who wear hijabs from attending public school. Whether you consider a hijab to be religion or culture or just one's taste in fashion, does it really hurt anybody?

Isn't part of living in a multi-cultured society the belief that one can be different and the same at the same time? That one doesn't have to give up part of who they are to belong? It all boils down to the issue - what is Canadian? Or, more specifically, what is not Canadian.

There are limits that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms places on one's freedom to follow religious and cultural traditions. These are specific limits against racism, homophobia, misogyny, and the denying of the necessities of life.

cromerovich: the whole world seems to be sliding to the right; do you have any ideas on why that might be, especially since it is demonstrably dysfunctional?

The Liberals survive mainly by evoking the ghost of Ralph Nader. Unless the Bloc folds up and dies, the odds of Harper getting a majority are next to nil. As far as NAFTA and many of the issue with the SPP, the differences between the Liberals and Conservatives are greatly exaggerated.

The right tends to win because they get their message out - which takes lots and lots of money. They market their ideas the same way xxxx markets icecream.

I wonder why the Liberals are not even as interested as the Conservatives to place limits on how much corporations can donate to political parties. Corporate donations are what moves the agenda of various political parties to the right - because the agenda of corporations is a right winged agenda.

The more money you have to spend, the more you can get your word out and the more that you can insure that they way you spin it is what the voters take away from the issue. The problems is that corporate money comes with strings attached. Blackwater gets more military contracts because they donate money to the Republican cause. If the Republicans get too harsh on them, the have to wave bye-bye to the money.

While the Accountability Act does not place any limits on third party spending (ie the Tax Payers Association can spend as much as they want during election promoting tax cuts over social spending), it does put an end to direct corporate donations to the degree that you see them in the US. You and me know that Harper will stretch the law and try to use any loophole he can find to his advantage, but, one would expect, if there was a big difference between Liberals and Conservatives that it would have been the Liberals who put this into law.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Part 1 also amends the Canada Elections Act to

(a) reduce to $1,000 the amount that an individual may contribute annually to a registered party, and create a distinct $1,000 annual limit on contributions to the registered associations, the nomination contestants and the candidates of a registered party;

(b) reduce to $1,000 the amount that an individual may contribute to an independent candidate or to a leadership contestant;

(c) reduce to $1,000 the amount that a nomination contestant, a candidate or a leadership contestant may contribute to his or her own campaign in addition to the $1,000 limit on individual contributions;

(d) totally ban contributions by corporations, trade unions and associations by repealing the exception that allows them to make an annual contribution of $1,000 to the registered associations, the candidates and the nomination contestants of a registered party and a contribution of $1,000 to an independent candidate during an election period;

http://www.faa-lfi.gc.ca/faa-lfi/faa-lfi00_e.asp

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fascism. Anyone doubt that Bush&Co are the Nazis of today?

vaudree: You are correct that the Liberals did have scandals and did deserve to get their butts kicked out -but the Canadian public did not deserve the result. The polls indicated that although the Liberal vote had eroded it was still a slight majority and recovering but that last "investigation" was the one that tipped them over the edge, and all for one individual and $7000. I lost more than that from my RRSP after Flaherty's Halloween Massacre.
I am neither a Liberal nor obviously a Conservative voter myself. I agree that there was not much difference between the large L Liberal and small C Conservative but there is a big difference between either of those and the Reform infested Conservatives of today with their Old Testament ideology, extremist views and dismantling of freedom, sovereignty and venerable institutions like the justice system. I am a firm believer in the separation of politics, religion and also education. Faith based politics never works and education should be open and neutral. Religion outside of that is fine.
I agree also that the Liberals have gravitated to the right over the years. Except for South America the whole world seems to be sliding to the right; do you have any ideas on why that might be, especially since it is demonstrably dysfunctional?

bobpomeroy: If I were Canadian, I would find a way to effectively report the offense taken at the detaining of Ann Wright.

Even as an American, you can voice your offense. You can voice it to the NDP who are just as offended by the exclusion of Benjamin and Wright as you are, and to the pro-Bush Conservatives whose policies are responsible for the exclusion.

cromerovich, you did a better job of explaining "visual identification of voters" than I did. I think that the actually number of hijab women who voted in the last Quebec provincial election was 13 or 16 in the entire province.

Strange how Harper (unlike his predecessors) is succeeding in riling up the racists without the racist label sticking to himself.

cromerovich: Right Wing RCMP announced an investigation during the election and the Liberal government lost the confidence of voters. Once the election was won by Harper the investigation was quietly shelved.

Well the Liberals did have a few scandels at the time and both Harper and Duceppe were able to capitalize on them. Paul Martin was not as skilled at deflection as Cretien was and Cretien probably left Martin with a bit of a mess on purpose. Cretien admitted what we suspected all along, that he stayed on as long as he did to spite Martin. My big fear if Dion steps down as leader of the Liberals that Iggy would get in since he is apt to bring the Liberals even further to the right. The way I look at it, Rae or Kennedy would have done any better than Dion. Rae is as popular in Ontario as Dion is in Quebec and Kennedy is very bland.

I think that Layton is smart and genuine in person, but that he just doesn't have the presence he needs to capture people's imagination.

The NDP has traditionally been the party of human rights and peace. The Liberals are more like the Conservatives than they want to admit to.

I wonder whether Wright would have gotten this much news coverage if she wasn't stopped at the border after being invited in. I looked at the August 2007 youtube video when she managed to get across the border and it didn't have much hits. What it discussed was Wrights difficulty in getting across the border in August 2007.

I am wondering whether the issue that Wright is bringing up in Canada is the harmonization of information between Canada and the US and the harmonization of border standards. Such harmonization tends to be seen in Canada as a loss of sovereignty.

If Wright was going to give an opinion on Afghanistan or the use of Blackwater to train Canadian soldiers, she could have done that via TV like Arar did.

Maybe Wright knew that she would have trouble for no good reason and that is the point she wanted to get across - that it was the point she wanted to get across rather than the border. What happened to Benjamin?

rgmccon, yes, I did notice that and a lot of other things that didn't add up.

Anyone who still believes the official conspiracy theory hasn't done their homework. But there's no way around it - eventually.

The official spin is that Ms. Wright was refused entry because of a criminal record, a conviction in the US for civil disobedience. The real reason is that Canada has a government that is in the same ideological mould as the one south of the border and neo-con PM Harper is busily wanking his American bedfellows. The Conservatives are a minority in Canada's Parliament but, unlike other minority governments, they are behaving like a majority because the opposition in Parliament is weak and fragmented. (Minority means that only a minority of Canadians voted for them and they, therefore, have a minority of seats). The centrist Liberals, the 'Natural Governing Party', is in disarray after being laid low by corruption and they have a weak leader. The other parties, a leftwing party and a separatist party, make defiant gestures but do not want an election. Harper can therefore do what he likes and what he likes to do is keep lickin' Dubya's bum. It is ironic that courageous American antiwar activists are being barred from Canada when Rwandan genocidists, Sikh separatists, and Tamil Tiger killers, among other unsavoury terrorists walk Canada's streets.

Just a thought, did any of you notice how fast the MSM had photos of the 9/11 hijackers on every front page in America? And they were all known by name etc, etc and they were all DEAD. Just thoughtI;d ask.

Unbelievable that Col. Ann Wright is locked up merely for speaking the truth.

WHATFOOLS: We don't even need to crawl to the edge of our sandbox--we can witness this and worse right here in the US--but I know what you mean. :-)

On the positive side...

Once upon a time we would need to travel to exotic ports of call in Africa or Asia to experience this sort of human rights abuse. Now, thanks to the energy saving efforts of Howard Bush, we need only crawl to the edge of our own sand box for this experience.

Stephen Harper plays Mussolini to Bush's Hitler...together they are the Axis of Weasels

2 things...

- Iran, like most of the middle-east oil nations, has greatly exaggerated it's oil reserves. Check the charts of reserves, and you'll see that all these countries' reserves magically increased at the same time, some years ago, all at once. So they don't have all the oil we think. Plus some of the very biggest fields have recently gone into decline. So it's not insane to imagine that Iran might really want the energy benefits of its nuclear program.

- Given US aggressiveness, combined with Iran's inclusion in the "Axis of Evil" hitlist, Iran could be thinking that the only way to avoid bombing, destruction, and maybe eventual invasion is to get a nuclear weapon. To keep us away, not unreasonable. Think of North Korea, India, Pakistan, China, Russia, the Former Soviet Union countries, all safe.

- a 3rd thing. Iran wants to be our friend. We (Cheney, etc) want them to be an enemy, and have since the late 90s, in print. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century .

Enough, no 4th thing. Thanks.

They're tightening the screws down! It's only going to get worse!

Dr. Martin Luther King would not be allowed into Canada today. What an irony and what a sad situation. Canada should know better. I've always believed they were are better cousins to the North.

Note the "the integrity of our federal voting system will be further strengthened through measures to confirm the visual identification of voters" in Vaudree's post above. Let me expand on that innocuous sounding line a little.

Harper has low cunning and knows how to divide a country on inconsequential matters. As he is guided by ideology (mistranslated bible prophecy) he automatically supports both Israel and the Religious Christian Evangelical Right. As such Harper demanded that Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand reverse the policy of not requiring removal of hibabs by Moslem voters and suggested there would be consequences if Mayrand did not toe the line. Harper aired this domestic dirty linen on the world stage as he was in Australia when he chose to bring this up. Mayrand refused as Harper knew full well he would because Mayrand would have violated the law had he done so. Incidentally, Moslem voters had no issue with removing their veils to identify themselves to female attendants and they represent a tiny percentage of the Canadian Moslem population anyway. Mayrand stood his ground and told Harper to change the law if he wanted a different approach and he, Mayrand would then follow that law just as he was now. It was also pointed out that people who mail in ballots don't need to identify themselves to the mailbox and that the whole thing really was a tempest in a teacup. No matter, Harper was out to divide the country along racial lines in typical neocon fashion using the good evil binary methodology approach and in this he succeeded as all manner of racial bickering ensued, implications that all Moslems were terrorists etc. etc. were spewed.

Harper will happily divide and erode Canadian sovereignty in order to get a majority government for himself and subsequently impose his dictatorial ideological will. Harper does not represent Canada any more than GWB represents the USA but he knows how to divide and conquer. The previous government was brought down when the politicized and largely Right Wing RCMP announced an investigation during the election and the Liberal government lost the confidence of voters. Once the election was won by Harper the investigation was quietly shelved. Sound familiar?

Here's the latest folks.

I read last night that the newest edict coming down from the Bush Administration via the TSA is that no American can fly domestically without a 72 hour hold!

Imagine. You are a law abiding, tax-paying American and your son/daughter/husband/wife etc. is in a horrific accident or has a massive heart attack and you must get a flight post haste to get to their bedside. Sorry. You have to wait 72 hours. New law. Doesn't matter that your relative you love needs you. Doesn't matter that by the time you get there there may be nothing left to make but funeral arrangements.

Welcome to America.

Here's the link to the info.:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18611.htm

As I said to my friends and family today, there are some things Americans will put up with. Tap our phones, read our emails, but when my kid or husband needs me and I need to jump on a plane post haste, you'd better get out of my fucking way.

Now I'm pissed. Really pissed.

"...new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight."

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10252007.html

We're all "Terrorists" now

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102507A.shtml

The same people who are selling this neocon disaster were the people who believed the Statue of Liberty was part of a selling of their need for more, cheaper labor, and nothing more. They have a sales pitch, but they don't believe it. This "...making our economic union good for ... (our countrymen)" misses their point. Their intent is oblique to what they say. Simply put, NAFTA is about putting North American labor on a par with Mexican labor. Good for everyone because it's good for business. How they must envy China. Family values because it put both husband and wife on the assembly line, hoping to get 2 weeks vacation at the same time instead of just giving people their lives back for one month out of the year. over and Out.

Beforeitstoolate;

Total WANKER, complete idiot. The "war" is anything BUT going well and there is nothing "funny" about it at all. If you're going to troll, you might try and sound at least a little bit intelligent.
But then I guess that would be impossible for you wouldn't it?

Comm' and Chmp';

What's with your Nader diatribes appearing everywhere, even on threads like this one? Were you ripping off consumers once and got busted? People must take a stand for honesty and integrity, not the lesser of two evils, even if it means losing the 'battle'. The larger war is for truth and honesty and one day it will be won. The sooner more people are not afraid to take a strong stand, the sooner things will change, even if the interim period is worse! You should NEVER compromise the truth.

COMarc;

To "flood the jails" is the best idea, you are right. Unfortunately, that requires a nation of strong people, not a nation of subservient sheep and wimps.

Americans;

Your ancestors would be more ashamed of you than they would be of Bush and Co.

jake123

This is terrible to write..but you should not trust lists coming out of the US and use your own judgement about who to let in.

There are several Canadians now in the courts because the Canadian authorities trusted US lists and allowed the US to send innocent Canadian citizens to other nations where they were tortured.

Use the US lists to call attention to individuals but use your own judgement about how to deal with it.

blucheek

Canada has a larger proportion of its people who are liberal. You even have a strong green party and the NDP would be where Kucinich would be. Also you can change your leader more quickly with your parliamentary system of government.

The US has a very strong conservative segment of the population. Some are social conservatives ..some economic...but the US as a nation is more to the right than Canada is.

for example:

In the news when Craig was caught in a sting operation soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom, on tv in Canada a gay politician married another man.

A reporter asked some Canadians why there was so litttle interest in this marriage between gays..and the general answers were ..so what? he got married..big deal..(but said more politely by canadians :) )

We are starting a country.
If I were Canadian, I would find a way to effectively report the offense taken at the detaining of Ann Wright. I would think that the Canadian government would take great umbrage at being deceived into doing so. As an American, I am ashamed that this was done in my name, with my tax dollars, and continues to be justified in my name. I am also outraged, and hope I can figure out an appropriate statement to make to my government. No sense of humor in those folks, but I can sure laugh at them.

vaudree

I've now read Harper's speech and he is good all right...its hard to not agree with him...its very carefully worded

Here are a few quotes from the Throne Speech and a few of my comments/questions

"Parliament's recognition that the Quebecois form a nation within our united country. "

a nation within a country ..a clever use of language to show indepence and yet a part of the whole...

"Despite the globalization of markets, Canada still has a long way to go to establish free trade among our provinces. It is often harder to move goods and services across provincial boundaries than across our international borders. This hurts our competitive position but, more importantly, it is just not the way a country should work. Our government will consider how to use the federal trade and commerce power to make our economic union work better for Canadians"

I was very surprised to read that it was difficult to move goods across provinces and I don't understand what he means. Can't a truck carrying goods be driven from one province to another?

"including direct consultations with voters on the selection of senators and limitations on their tenure. In addition, the integrity of our federal voting system will be further strengthened through measures to confirm the visual identification of voters"

Looks like he is interfering in the tradtional selection of senators and in who can vote. Is he trying to help build the conservative party with this strategy?

"mandatory prison sentences for those who commit gun crimes"

The US has a large proportion of its people in jail and it would be very sad if Canada followed our bad example by using mandatory sentences and increased the people in jail

"May your deliberations be guided by Divine Providence"

Hmmm, a clever reference to God. Is this unusual? to refer to "Divine Providence"?

I'd be happy to start a country with the people on this thread anyday.

Colleen: "Can you help me understand why Harper is still in power?"

This is a good question. The answer is best given as another question: Can you explain to me why GWB et al are still in power?

Both are puppets to the same sinister forces pulling their strings. - and ours.

Beforeitstoolate: "The funny part is that the "war" in Iraq is really going well. I know this news will just piss off the libs but watch the news; it's actually getting boring for a ton of the troops because there is nothing to do over there.."

This may help explain why:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ26Ak07.html

commander_n_chimp:

"The Naderites want us to believe that Al Gore would have created a terrorist watch list that would have included Wright's and Benjamin's names."

citation, please.

"Yeah…..Iran is harmless. Nuclear technology when you have a sea of oil under you seems a little silly if not suspicious don't you think? lets give this just a little bit of thought….Iran get nuclear…they give it to a bad guy…..the bad guy brings it to the USA……they blow it up and liberal's and conservatives die…..every hear them say "death to America?"…wise up retards, we need to bomb them back into the Stone Age. NOW! That way you all are free (want to stay free?) to protest and bitch about the great USA! :o)"

Erm, does the above quote count as trolling, y'all? I just want to make sure I'm not being hyperbolic. ;-D lol

beforeitstoolate, I usually operate under the principle that anybody who is making less than, oh, well into the six digits is a potential ally...but there are exceptions. You appear to be one of them.

That being said, here goes:

"That way you all are free (want to stay free?) to protest and bitch about the great USA!"

Have you ever read 1984? This is classic "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery" think.

"Wise up retards!"

OMG. You don't really expect me to take you seriously saying crap like this, do you? Wait. You do. Honey, go back to your dorm room, your frat buddies left you a message for I.P. Freely.

Bill BRG: "Note to Canadian Border Security personnel- would I have to declare my rapier-like wit as a weapon at the border?"

No, but make sure you don't use it on them or you will get bounced back in short order; also make sure you take the bullets out of any Word documents you have on you.

Bren, Stephen Harper doesn't like to be called "Steve" - but he is too polite to make this point with Georgie-Boy. Only George Bush and Danny Williams get away with calling Harper "Steve" - and the latter does it to piss him off.

I find it Ironic that Wright was warning us about border security excesses on August 20, 2007.

I find it interesting that "beforeitstoolate" thinks we should bomb "them" back to the Stone Age. Does anyone remember that civilization STARTED in the Fertile Crescent?! If you want to be Creationist about it, Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden?! Good grief. I guess we can all assume that if this criminal administration does bomb Iran that "beforeitstoolate" will be first in line to go back overseas.

I don't recognize this country anymore.

I hate to say it, but I believe it to be true that the problem at the border for Col. Wright and Medea Benjamin actually has nothing to do with them and everything to do with Stephen Harper's support for Bush. If Bush or his cronies were to say Jump, Steve-o would ask 'How high?' I don't know what he will do when Bush is replaced by a Democrat!

Not that beforeitistoolate would be interested, but there are a few historical and technical points that make its view on Iran's nuclear interests appear a little simple minded.

Firstly, there is no such thing as a sea of oil. All oil fields are finite and extremely limited in volume. Interestingly, Iran got its start in nuclear development, with US backing under a US puppet only somewhat worse than Saddam Hussein. Naturally that was when its reserves of oil were larger than today.

Secondly Iran has its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA inspections, not only at a normal level, but at an enhanced level that had been insisted upon by the western powers, under urging of the US. Iran, of course, had agreed upon these enhanced inspections as a gesture of good faith. Under US insistence, the western powers reneged upon their part of the bargain, to ramp down the tensions in return for Iran's cooperation.

Thirdly, there have been various conflicting estimations of how long it would take Iran to develop nuclear weapons, some of them based upon how long it would take to make enough weapons grade uranium, and others based upon the assumption of availability of such uranium. What is neglected in all of these studies, is that there is a world of difference between the way you set up centrifuges to produce fuel grade uranium and the way you produce weapons grade uranium. Iran has begun small scale production of fuel grade uranium. In order to convert to weapons grade production, the entire bank of thousands of centrifuges would have to be re-plumbed to place fewer in parallel and more in series. If one were to imagine that this might be done clandestinely while under inspection, consider this: One of the events that was used to raise suspicion against Iran, was the detection of a trace of weapons grade uranium on a used centrifuge, that was eventually traced conclusively back to Pakistan, where the centrifuge had come from. (Notice that those ramping up the suspicion never announced the final explanation.) Now if a trace could be detected on a used centrifuge, and tracked back to its original source, then how does one imagine that thousands of centrifuges could be re-plumbed, and placed into full scale production of weapons grade uranium without that change being detected by the inspectors?

When it comes right down to it, the protection and security that Bush, and by his subservience, Harper offer us amounts to the formula: "Better to initiate hostilities today, than to miss the opportunity and have no excuse tomorrow as the facts become known." After all, was that not the formula used to stampede the coalition of the ignorant and the bought into the invasion of Iraq?

Yet another outrage in a time replete with outrages. This is a clear effort to squelch free speech of articulate dissidents and nothing other than that. The idea that Col. Wright and Media Benjamin should be excluded from Canada leads me to conclude that in the not distant future there will be millions of us dissidents on those lists. We'll be prisoners in our own country.

Wasn't August 2007 only a few short months ago? Seems that Ann Wright was having a bit of border trouble then too, but managed to get into Canada:

Ann Wright - NDP - Stop SPP forum Aug 20th

http://youtube.com/watch?v=G4KvAkcbqeA

Bill BRG, don't blame me, I voted for the people who invited Wright and Benjamin into Canada - both this time and in August.

Harper is the reason Bush doesn't need toilet paper when he visits.

Does PM Harper have a pair of monogramed knee pads from Dubya?

Thank you, Canadians for supporting American war resisters.
Support them via http://www.soldiersayno.blogspot.com/

Col. Wright and Ms. Benjamin represent courage to defend real democracy, nonviolently and fearlessly, unlike the spineless wonders and corporate hacks inhabiting the major part of the US Congress.

Having met and being familiar with the words and deeds of both Wright and Benjamin, only tyrants and their stooges (no insult intended to Moe, Larry, Curly and the fill-ins)should fear or try to disuade their presence.

Can Congressmen get a cajones transplant under their medical coverage? They'd probably reject a healthy set anyway. Foreign tissue, foreign to their way of living, their M. O. A proper term to use with criminal behavior.

Maybe we need to try a new tact in the US. Court Martial George W. Bush. I favor the potential sentences for it.

I love it. While I'm editing this, vaudree from Canada remarks imply that Harper is either asswipe or a tuchas lecher. Of course, there's a third option: he's those plus a brown noser.

Ah, juvenile humor can still make me smile even now.

Oh, Canada!

Note to Canadian Border Security personnel- would I have to declare my rapier-like wit as a weapon at the border?

jake 123 says: In Canada, the PM cannot directly order the border services to treat someone as persona non grata.

Jake, are you sure of that? I think that we will be finding out whether you are right or not.

I think that if there is a court challenge that this would be against the Charter, but didn't the Conservatives get rid of the funding for court challenges (while the Liberals were avoiding an election last year because they were leaderless)?

And then there is the SPP which met in Montebello. The difference between the SPP and NAFTA is that the SPP tries to word laws so that they are regulations (which don't have to go through parliament) rather than legislations. We don't know how many regulations they dreamed up that can operate in violation of the Charter - until they are discovered and challenged.

Does anyone know about what Col. Wright and Ms. Benjamin were going to speak about?

I'm a Canadian.

I don't think Ann Wright should be detained, but let me ask you something about where the actual problem lies.

Right after 9/11, the US gov made a special case and got all of the bin Laden family out of the US. That was a special case made in the name of protecting friends of the administration with an eye to frustrating normal law enforcement protocols following a crime. In general, special cases like this make it possible to abuse the system by the powerful.

Now, most countries have a policy that they don't allow criminals to enter their country. For example, I have some friends who can't enter the US because they got busted with a joint; if they attempt to enter the US, they will be turned back at the border after US customs has disassembled their car. They do this based on access to our (Canada's) law enforcement database, which will tell them if someone entering the US has a record, and of what kind. Your authorities also have given my country access to their databases, and we reciprocate; after all, we feel as strongly about people who've committed gun crimes as your authorities feel about dope smokers, and we can all agree that murderers, rapists, and pedophiles are not wanted.

So, what's the problem? The problem is that the two women in question appear in that database. That's the database that helps us keep out people that we don't want in our country; people who are violent, people who victimize children, etc. The problem is not that we are turning criminals back; they are turning back Ms. Wright, but they'd also turn back the guy that held up a liquor store and shot the owner and was out on parole too. No, the problem is that she shouldn't be on that database.

We don't have ANY CONTROL WHATSOEVER about who ends up in that database, but it's pretty universally accepted that at the border it's better to stop some false positives than to allow in everybody. The real problem doesn't exist at our border points. The real problem exists in your Justice Department. We already know that the DoJ has been politicized, and that they have made decisions based on politics rather than law. This looks like such a case. However, it's pretty easy for people to Blame Canada instead of looking carefully at what's going on, which is the politicization of the serious criminals database by Bush's DoJ. In fact, by stopping those two women at the border, and detaining one of them who attempted to fly in, our border services (who serve at arm's length from the government) are doing the US and its citizenry a favour by showing how seriously impaired the US' efforts to enhance border security has been by the politicization of the normal means by which this is done. This should be news in the US, because it's really clear to people that think what's going on.

The questions you need to ask, and to ask of your representatives, are as follows:

Why is someone with a trespassing charge on a list of serious criminals?

What do you say to the prima facie case that this list has been politicized instead of used as it's supposed to be used?

This list is a reciprocity gesture used to get information from Canada so that it's easier for US border guards to keep undesirables in Canada from entering the US. What is the likely result for further cooperation with the neighbour with the longest undefended border in the world when it's becoming very clear to that neighbour that the list has been corrupted for political reasons, and is at best an unreliable guide to the people we wish to let in and the people we wish to keep out.

When will there be an investigation into the obvious politicization of this list, which is in the end bound and determined to impair the cooperation between our two countries in areas of common interest?

And a question for your newspapers, radio, and television media, both locally and nationally:

It's very clear that one of the primary mechanisms for keeping criminals out of the US (the sharing of law enforcement databases by both countries customs services) has been politicized, which in the long run can only impair its effectiveness. Why aren't you reporting on this?

Once again, I'd like to point out something. In Canada, the PM cannot directly order the border services to treat someone as persona non grata. There are procedures to have this done, and they are not trivial, and they are done in public; parts of the process may not be public, but parts of the process HAVE TO BE public. OTOH, the cooperation in terms of sharing lists of criminals has been a long term feature of our border cooperation, predating 9/11 by decades. The ONLY REASON that it's become problematic is because of actions undertaken by the USA government to politicize the list used by our border agents to aid determination of the entry status of people coming here.

Finally, and I said this in response to another article on CD earlier this week, a great protest by Col. Wright and Ms. Benjamin about this obvious abuse of law enforcement by the politicized DoJ would be applying for refugee status in Canada, pointing to their presence on this list as evidence that their fundamental mobility rights are being violated by their government; mobility rights are enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada.

If the two of them can scare up some dough for this so as to engage a Canadian refugee lawyer, they could create some seriously bad PR, because with the right presentation it would take a LONG TIME for the case to end up being decided... and the IRB operates at arm's length, meaning that overt political interference by the PM or cabinet would create a veritable shitstorm in the press up here at the same time that the mere fact that they're being considered for refugee status from the US would almost certainly create one in the press down there.

It's fun to rant, but it's also good to think about how to use clear political abuse of due process to create problems for the abusers.

I watched as our Fascist Dictator turned our airports into checkpoints under the guise of making us 'safer.' Obviously that 'safety' has crept across the borders. I had more respect for Canada.

"Iran get nuclear…they give it to a bad guy"

the bad guy already has more nukes than anyone else, the bad guy is labeling peace activists as criminals, the bad guy locks up it's citizens, the bad guy kidnaps people around the globe, the bad guy is killing hundred of thousands of Iraqis, the bad guy is in financial debt, the bad guy is a moron, the bad guy is you.

I've seen Ann Wright in action, and suggest that she would make a truly fine Secretary of State. An order of magnitude above any from this MalAdministration.

What a joke. The persons that should be detained are flying all over the world and Canada detains peace activists? How about starting detaining Bush, Powel, Rice, Rummy, Wolfowitz and the gang?

Let Freedom Ring!

Colleen, I haven't even tried to explain what a Throne Speech is - just why Harper was still in power.

A Throne Speech is basically like your Presidential Address to the Nation in that it gives an overview of government policy. There are a few differences, though, the Prime Minister doesn't actually read the Throne Speech, he gets the Governor General do do so for him. Like the American Address to the Nation, the Throne Speech reads like it is written on used toilet paper.

Governor General=official representative of the Queen.
MP=Congressperson

The Throne Speech and the Budget are automatically Confidence votes - meaning if more MPs vote against it than for it, Canada has another election. Other things are only Confidence vote if the Government or the Opposition make it one.

Harper is threatening to make every vote on legislation following the Throne Speech a Confidence vote because he sees it as a win-win situation. Either they let him get what he wants in legislation or the government falls and he gets the election he wants.

Normally, the opposition can defeat a legislation without there being an election.

Even if Harper turns every legislation into a Confidence vote, like he is threatening, the Opposition can still vote amendments to the legislation (ie change it) before they vote for the final legislation.

Would you have voted for the Throne Speech?

(transcript and video of Throne Speech)

Wonder what Wright thinks of the following from the recent Throne Speech:

The concern of Canadians in protecting our communities extends naturally to protecting our country against threats to our national security: those who would attack the peaceful pluralism of our society through acts of terrorism. Canada has experienced the tragedy of terrorism before. The report from the public inquiry into the Air India bombing will be an important contribution to safeguarding the lives of Canadians in the future.

Our government will address Canadians directly on the challenge of protecting our free and open society with a statement on national security. The government will introduce legislation to make sure that Canada has the tools it needs to stop those who would threaten our cities, communities and families, including measures to strengthen the Anti-Terrorism Act and to respond to the Supreme Court decision on security certificates.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And there is stuff on Afghanistan etc in there as well.

Oh, and Instead of a Secretary of State or a Secretary of Defense like you have in the US, we have a Minister of Defense.

In the US the Secretary of Defense is an unelected individual appointed by the President. In Canada the Minister of Defense is an MP from the ruling party that the PM has chosen to give a Cabinet position to.

The Opposition parties all form their own "shadow cabinets" where each of their MPs is assigned a critic portfolio. This way the work is divided up. For example, if the government has a Minister of Justice, the opposition parties each have a Justice Critic whose job it is to keep up on Justice related issues.

The names of both the Cabinet positions and the Critic portfolios are up to the discretion of the party leaders. Each tends to divide the work load up slightly differently.

vaudree

Thank you for the attempt :)

Americans have almost zero understanding of how Canadian governmnet works imo.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/266608 will give you a sample of how confusing it is.

Could someone who is Canadian ever hope to explain what a throne speech is? Its incredibly confusing to an American like me.

(I went to a local city council meeting in a small city in Canada and the councilors referred to the mayor as "your worship" and he is Jewish...which was charming in an amusing way.)

She is a terrorist, eh? I imagine all of us who voice our concerns towards a progressive future are ALL terrorists!

Have no illusions, Prime Minister Steven Harper is in the same pocket of the "North American Corporate Collective" as President Bush. And like Bush, he will follow his instructions, so it should not surprise anyone to observe the same war attitude in both countries.

These two entities view the protection of international corporate stash as a primary policy objective; regardless of the corporates country of origin.

As readers of Common Dreams know, the corporate has decided the Middle East oil and attached returns must be secured regardless of the human cost.

Ontario, Canada

Before it is too late - wake from your dreams, Rip Van Winkle.
It is already too late. Iraq is lost, Afghanisan is lost and in a little over 12 months time, your beloved Repugnants will be buried.
RIP

So Canada is supporting the Fuhrer,and not allowing our protesting citizens into their country. Bush will not last for ever, and we will take our country back. When we do, we will remember our neighbors to the north, and what they did to us.
I hope that this is reported in the world press. The world should be made aware that Canada is collaborating with scum.

Beforeitstoolate....Danger alert, dangert alert, Iran attacked a neighboring state as recently as... 250 years ago.

tarasa,

Can you help me understand why Harper is still in power? Why wasn't there an election? He is in a minority party...

As a Canadian, I find the actions of the Canadian authorities to be disgusting. Our present Conservative government, neocons are marching in sync with their rightist allies to the south. The fact that General, now Col. Wright, a woman who served her country well, is being treated the way she has been by the US government is bad enough, but to have the Canadian government going along with this affront to the rights to free speech is repugnant.

beforeitstoolate ... you are the one who needs to think and maybe read the Constitution of the 'the great USA' because its not so great when that document is no longer respected or enforced. 'the great USA's' president and his entire administration are lunatic war criminals with no regard for the law or life.

Beforeitstoolate.....TROLL ALERT....IGNORE ! IGNORE!

We need to get congress moving on a bill to oversee this list. There are thousands of name on it that should not be there and it must be reviewed to prevent abuse.

A poster fails even to address the liberty he claims to defend for a fellow soldier's freedom of speech. The FBI's list. The land of the free are we? He says bomb them back to the stone age. That would kill a whole lot of people I expect and then what? He doesn't say. He says destroy on a massive scale death in huge measure and then what? He doesn't say. Nor does he mention that a war with Iran would likely see Pakistan fall to extremists. What happens then since they do have WMDS ... he doesn't say. He doesn't say much about a fellow soldier's freedoms nor what will happen after the mass destruction he advocates. What happens then ...he doesn't say. He just says destroy and kill and thinks no further. Maybe he figures we should just keep killing until we kill them all? Beforeitstoolate...it's too late for you...you are nuts.

The Naderites want us to believe that Al Gore would have created a terrorist watch list that would have included Wright's and Benjamin's names. Remember that always and forever remind the Nader voters of their complicity with the Bush regime. The term "useful idiots" was invented specifically for those who helped put George Warmonger Bush into the White House.

Jake

But what about the liberals and the NDP and the greens? They actually represent the majority of Canadians and they do not support Bush's wars?

Why didn't the other political parties want a new election and they could have removed Harper? What keeps Harper in power? He seems like a mini Bush..but not as nasty as Bush. Harper is a very clever politician... a very sly man imo.

Hey beforeitstoolage! Just got back huh? Where did you serve? What is/was your MOS (Military Occupational Speciality?) What unit did you serve with: grunts, arty, airwing, supply?
After ten years of military service, three of which was spent in Vietnam in the Marine Corps, you cheerleading for a war going so well, sounds hollow-like most wannabes sound.

If it gets to the point that one would need to escape the U. S. you can wait until a good winter freeze, but due to Global Warming that may be impractical. My other suggestion would be to Kayak across the St. Lawrence or St. Marys River at the "Soo". Where is your sense of adventure.

Wake up Congress and repeal the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and Military Commssions Act. Worthless waste of billions hiring millions of incompetents, just like the stupid Nazi SS bums that had the power of life or death over fellow German citizens. You ( Congress ) have given away our liberties. Are you so stupid to allow that bastard Bush to convince you to so vote? Wake up, before it's too late. History will not only condemn Bush as the worst president, it will also include Congress as co-conspirator in destroying the Constitution.

Colleen,

I hope it's just Harper because as I said, I don't recognize my country anymore. Canada was the first country to cut aid to the Palestinians after Hamas won the election, and one of the first to support the Israeli attack on Lebanon last year. PM Harper called the Israeli response to the kidnapping of the soldiers "measured". Detroying the infrastructure of a country, littering the countryside with unexploded cluster bombs, and killing over a thousand people is a measured response to kidnapping two soldiers!?

I know how the Conservative party members feel about military action. They love it. And that's their right.

But they do not have a right to stifle dissent. Not yet anyway, but they're working on it. It's so very sad.

Demetria,

It's sort of like seeing a fly on your respirator, so you set fire to it to destroy the fly and end up dead yourself. A desire to kill others while assuring one's own destruction is a symptom of a diseased mind.

Wow, beforitstoolate, you mean our Occupation is succeeding with the Americabastardization of Iraq, what a comforting thought, I guess all's right with the world we've re-created again. Disneyland rules.

Most Americans can't leave the US because they have so much debt..in credit cards and on houses that are dropping in value.

Where could they go? and with a dollar that is devaluing even if they have some money.

again, i'll point out that this story is NOT making US MSM and most people don't have a clue we're being waltzed, silently, into a police state....

The person who wanted to "bomb Iran back to the stone age". I wonder if they have any knowledge about what happens if we nuke them. The fallout does not stay in Iran, it goes around the world into his lungs, skin, and body parts to slower rot his body away from cancer. THis is the "wise" decision he wants to make. What a foolish person.