Opinion: Canada as an Imperialist State

One of the speakers I saw over the weekend was Steven Staples of the Polaris Institute. He has done some important work surrounding military spending. He believes that Canada's foreign policy is mainly driven by want to keep trade with the United States. Its very important that we get away from that form of thinking. Canada is not simply catering to the imperialism of the United States, Canada is imperialist in its own right.

The history of Canada is mired in domination of others. It began by the colonization by the French and English empires over the hundreds of Aboriginal and Inuit Nations. Once the Seven Years War led to the conquer of the French settlers it established the dominance of the English over all people in what later became Canada. Later Canada became an official country and continued to widen power over First Nations, French, and minorities. First Nations land was reduced and reduced including today and, awful cultural elimination programs were put in place to produce imperialism on a domestic scale. This domestic imperialism has continued as seen by Oka in 1990, Ipperwash in 1995, and Caledonia today. When talking about Canadian imperialism however, it is important to look at the current international context. Canada is participating in the occupation of Afghanistan which though many of the media spin as humanitarian is anything but. Canadian companies are making large amounts of money from the occupation and in fact Jean Chretien the former Prime Minsiter has many links to Caspian sea hydrocarbon companies. You might ask aren't are troops providing stability for the people of Kandahar regardless? No, Canada is providing stability for a pipeline for oil and natural gas that runs from the Caspian through Turkmenstein, through Afghanistan passing Kandahar and then going south to Pakistan. Canada has interests other then the United States in Afghanistan.

The coup d'etat in Haiti also represents a wing of Canadian Imperialism. Haiti is a small island country in the Caribbean and the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Yet, Canada along with France and the United States planned a coup here in Ottawa then orchestrated it in Haiti against the democratic leader. The crime of the country was self-determination in its economic policy instead of following a neo-liberal tract that perpetuates economic inequality. Later companies like Gildan ActiveWear closed down manufacturing in Canada and moved it to sweatshops in Haiti.

One must also look at what Canada is now doing with diplomacy. Canada now opposes resolutions that condemn Israel and have cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority. It has been pushing genetically modified foods and terminator seeds at the UN Convention for Biological Diversity. Canada also is one of the few countries in the West not to condemn Guantanamo Bay most likely because, of the creation of the Milhaven facility and the use of Security Certificates. Another important statistic to note is that Canada is the sixth largest producer of arms in the world. Its time for people to wake up and understand the complexity and rage of Canadian imperialism. That way people will be able to say no to this perpetuation of oppression and the debasing of Canadian integrity.

Opinion: The Canadian Left Wing, a Culture of Silence

Many people would call me a socialist. When I was growing up I vividly remember my father who is a conservative saying to me when I was ten years old that I was one. I however, am more and more disheartend by the Canadian left wing. The New Democratic Party fails at being distinct as it moves more and more each year towards mediocrity, the peace movement has not been outspoken about the major abuses in China, Palestine and, Sudan, and the issue of Haiti which our government has a direct role in is often ignored.

In the past I have been very partisan towards those I talk to. Especially around election time I was able to convince many people to vote for the NDP. I now believe that this was a mistake. Partisan politics do anything, but aid in the democratic process. The recent "take-note" debate in the house of commons about Afghanistan just showed how similar the parties are. Not a single member of parliament came outright against the action due to fealty to party heads and that even questioning the mission gets one berated by other MPs as well as the media as unpatriotic. Yet, in reality the crushing of dissent in a state that is supposed to be democratic is unpatriotic.

The peace movement certainly is not perfect either. Instead of actually looking at what is going on in the world such as the genocide in Darfur or the human rights abuses in China or the occupation of Palestine. The peace movement has just allowed it to continue without a word. Of course small groups have popped up on these specific issues, but instead of movement building this is the separation, just as partisan politics is separation. In conversations about these issues what I get in response is that it is due to our government not being directly involved. However, in the case of Darfur it is a full case of genocide which causes much more brutality then what is going on in Afghanistan. In the case of China we trade heavily with them and give them legitimacy. Lastly on Palestine I've barely heard anything about the ongoing occupation despite the fact that we are now voting against the Palestinians in the United Nations and have removed all aid for them.

Both the NDP and Peace movements have neglected Haiti. The NDP instead of going public on the issue has neglected to mention it other then some tiny parts after the coup d'etat. Alexa McDonough is the only MP to have publicly addressed the issue as to the abuses after the coup. She wrote a letter to her credit, but has neglected to tell the fact that we planned it. The peace movement has mentioned Haiti, but here and there, there is reluctance to include Haiti on the agenda. During the March 18th protests though the group I'm part of the Students Coalition Against War took on the issue in our previous demonstration, the main march left out Haiti. Whenever I see images from or hear of Toronto protests I have yet to see Haiti be on the agenda there either. The Canadian Haiti Action Network has struggled away for Haiti to be included and have produced many great things.

My proposal is this, we discard partisan politics and discard the title of left or right. Instead we acquire the title of caring human being who has a affinity for peace, liberty and, freedom. If your candidate actually stands up for what is correct vote for them whether they be Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green, Independent, Marxist, First Nations, Libertarian, excetera.

Ottawa: CHAN Demands Kingsley's Resignation

About two dozen protesters met at lunch hour today outside Elections Canada. The Canadian Haitian Action Network(CHAN) decided to call for the resignation of Jean-Pierre Kingsley the chief electoral officer who tried to legitimate the Haitian elections. The government of Haiti was overthrown in 2004 by Canada, France and, the United States, even though it was democratic. The media has largely stayed away from this despite the fact that the Carribean Community, the African Union and, some South American states have condemed it as a coup d'etat. In order to cover up this fact Kingsley was put in place to oversee elections in the country. The elections were marred with error including forged ballots, dumped ballots in garbage, thousands of political prisioners, intimidation and murder of Fanami-Lavalas supporters, as well as the reduction of polling stations. In the Haitian run elections of 2000 there were 12,000 polling stations around the country. In the Elections Canada run Haitian elections of 2006 there were only 900 which were concentrated in the rich neighbourhoods. Despite all this Rene Preval a friend of the deposed President Aristide and President from 1995 - 2000, won the elections. The demonstrators from the Ottawa-Haiti Solidarity Committee a part of CHAN delivered their demands inside in person in order to make their point heard as they were watched by about a dozen uniformed police, two plain clothes (one of which was taking photos of everyone's faces) and, the Elections Canada security. To see their full demands and reasoning go here.
Image from Haiti Information Project. Haitians Protest UN abuses.


Tags: Protests, Ottawa, Haiti, Jean-Pierre Kingsley

Critque: Haiti How Canada is Lying

Yesterday during my studies and look at the media I came across two articles citing the great job Canada is doing in Haiti. One was CTV.ca the other was my Politics and Globalization textbook. Yet, what they cite is contrary to reality of the awful role we're playing.

Gov. Gen. Jean to travel to homeland of Haiti
"Preval's democratically elected predecessor and associate, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by rebels in 2004. The United States provided an airplane to help Aristide flee the country, but he did not get any help to regain power."
There are other parts of the article which are not true or half-true, but that paragraph is by far the worst. Now the media has come a long way as two years ago Aristide was being portrayed more like a dictator. However, it doesn't mention that the rebels were funded by the United States, Canada and, France. It also fails to mention that the coup was planned here in Ottawa called the Ottawa Initiative, which decided the fate of Haiti without the popular will of Haitians. The article also leaves out that that airplane was secured on the ground by Canadian forces and, that it was a forced leave which landed the plane in the Central African Republic, a dictatorship friedly towards France. The author also forgets that it was not that he did not get help to regain power, he was openly blocked to regain power. If you want to know about the situation either comment or read this site.

The next distortion came from my textbook Global Politics by Allen Sens and Peter Stoett on page 454. It states "...continued violence in Haiti led to the overthrow of the Aristides governments, and Canada again responded with a commitment to peace and stability efforts, largely supported by Montreal's Haitian Community." Another not true statement as Canada responded by instigating the violence and helping with the overthrow of Aristide which was not supported by Montreal's Haitian Community. In fact Montreal's Haitian community condemed the government's actions and formed a group called Haiti Action Montreal.

Solidarity

Here are some solidarity images. Use freely. It would be nice to have links back to my site, but its not mandatory. http://sparkoffreedom.blogspot.com/

Afghanistan Solidarity

Haiti Solidarity

Iraq Solidarity

Palestine Solidarity

Tibet Solidarity