Cdn Biz Torching Villages!

It’s Skye Resources doing the torching and if anyone can shed light on any of their Board Members or members of the Management Team, please comment below. It seems that Mr. William (Bill) Enrico, Vice President Operations, is responsible for all operational activities at the Fenix Project in Guatemala, where the torching took place.  And yes, of course, they got the state on side before the torching.  But this is a Canadian company and  well, foolish me, I’d thought we Canadians were able to negotiate rather than obliterate.

It seems very important that we make the connections these particular Canadians have to other Canadians and to make them public. Most particularly, I’d be interested in any connections these nasty men have to Stephen Harper and his band of fascists.

>From http://www.rightsaction.org/video/elestor/VIOLENT EVICTIONS AT EL ESTOR, IZABAL, GUATEMALAOn January 8th and 9th 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala

forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on

lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining

company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous populations claim the land to be

theirs, and resent the exploitation of an outside corporation. Canada’s Skye

Resources now lays claim to the land, and paid workers a nominal sum to

destroy people’s homes. With the force of the army and police, company

workers took chainsaws and torches to people’s homes, while women and

children stood by. Skye Resources claims that they maintained “a peaceful

atmosphere” during this action.

===========================

Here is the website of the company Skye Resources…

http://www.skyeresources.com/

See below to view a video of the evictions.

________________________________

From: Rodolfo Pino-Robles [mailto:pinorobles@yahoo.ca]

Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 4:19 PM

To: rpinor@hotmail.com

Subject: Please distribute…. Por favor distribuya

Violent eviction of Indigenous people in Guatemala in favour of a Canadian

Mining Company.

Violento desalojo de Indígenas en Guatemala en favor de una minera

canadiense.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q20YxkM-CGI

Rodolfo Pino-Robles

Professor of Native, Religious, Inter- Disciplinary Studies, Sociology, and

Anthropology

Musician and Composer

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA

http://www.rodolfopino-robles.ca

International Campaign for Indigenous Dignity

Tawantinsuyo

Harper’s Biggest Lie

Given the slashing his New Government of Canada has given women across the country, via cuts to Status of Women Canada, the document below must surely qualify as proof that anything Stephen Harper says or does can never be trusted.

Here’s hoping those who think he’s turning green will see through the b.s.

Thanks to NUPGE for the image.

That was then…this is now

Read this most excellent article from the Ottawa Citizen, regarding the cuts to SWC and the impact.  (But the author neglected to mention the Funeral for the Future, organized by U of Regina students.)

That was then…this is now (Part 1)

‘A long way, baby,’ has long been the standard measure of women’s progress toward equality. But how far have we really come? It’s a question women are asking given the Conservative government’s decision to all but dismantle the only federal agency for Canadian women

 

 

Janice Kennedy, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Sunday, January 28, 2007

If hey weren’t fuelled by such anger and dismay, the protests might almost resemble a warm walk down nostalgia lane, scenes from the ’60s and ’70s when uppity women were called “libbers” for their subversive belief in equality with men.

There they were by the thousands throughout the fall and into December, signs in hand, protesting in cities across the country.

“Are we equal? NO,” read one of the placards at an Ottawa demonstration held Dec. 10 (International Human Rights Day), a rally with the slogan “Women will not go quietly back to the kitchen.” The rallying cry, heard on the 25th anniversary of Canada’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, echoed those heady days 40 years ago when the granddaughters of suffragettes were starting to rediscover women’s uppitiness.

Except that the protesters were marching in 2006.

Read the full article.

US official lies re: NAFTA corridor?

I wonder if the U.S. government has trained their officials in telling lies. Either that, or they keep their Undersecretaries locked in dungeons.

World Net News reports that a US Department of Transportation official, Jeff Shane, told a US House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that the North American SuperCorridor, aka the NAFTA Highway, is an “Internet conspiracy” and “an urban legend.”

I suppose, then, that the NASCO Corridor website must be part of the conspiracy and that of the Trans-Texas Corridor must also be part of it. And, those I’ve referenced in numerous posts here at P’n’P, the boards of directors as well as numerous government and business officials from Canada, the USA, and Mexico, must be the conspirators.

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
Plan for superhighway
ripped as ‘urban legend’
Congressman, DOT undersecretary disagree over threat to sovereignty

---

Posted: January 26, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Jeffrey N. Shane, undersecretary for DOT

Congressmen and a policy official of the Department of Transportation engaged in a spirited exchange over whether NAFTA Super Highways were a threat to U.S. sovereignty or an imaginary “Internet conspiracy,” such as the “black helicopter myths,” advanced by fringe lunatics. At a meeting Wednesday of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Jeffrey N. Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified.

During the questioning by committee members, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, asked Shane about the existence of plans for a “NAFTA superhighway.”

Shane responded he was “not familiar with any plan at all, related to NAFTA or cross-border traffic.”

After further questioning by Poe, Shane stated reports of NAFTA superhighways or corridors were “an urban legend.”

At this, the chairman, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., questioned aloud whether Shane was just “gaming semantics” when responding to Poe’s question.

“Mr. Shane was either blissfully ignorant or he may have been less than candid with the committee,” Poe told WND in a telephone interview.

Unethical investment

From the inbox, something we’ve known for a long time:  nuclear power is too risky to be an ethical investment, according to The Ethical Funds Company.

The Ethical Funds Company says nuclear power is too risky

 

Vancouver, BC – January 19, 2007 – Nuclear power carries too many risks to qualify as a sustainable investment, according to a new report published by The Ethical Funds Company, Canada’s leading manager of socially responsible mutual funds.

 

The Ethical Funds Company has published its review of major nuclear risks in One is Too Many: Considering Nuclear in a Time of Climate Change.

 

“We were motivated to conduct this review by recent claims that nuclear power can serve as a primary strategy for fighting climate change,” said Bob Walker, Vice President, Sustainability, at The Ethical Funds Company. “In our view, these claims do not take into account the significant environmental, social and political challenges and risks associated with nuclear power.”

 

The Ethical Funds Company’s case for excluding nuclear power from its investment portfolios is based upon five issues: 

 

1. Financial sustainability. The electricity industry is currently moving towards privatization of power generation. In order to attract investment on the open market, nuclear power plants will need to compete with other kinds of electricity generation. Cost analysis indicates that despite decades of government support – and in the absence of future subsidies – nuclear power cannot compete with coal, natural gas or some renewable sources of electricity. 

 

2. Nuclear power safety. Analysis indicates that with an expanded industry we can expect as many as four nuclear “core” damage incidents by mid-century. Examples of this type of incident include Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. One accident, in our view, would be unacceptable.

 

3. Waste disposal. After 20 years of study, the nuclear power industry has not yet resolved the issue of nuclear waste disposal. One of the world’s most advanced sites, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, has been delayed on technical grounds and because of local opposition. 

  

4. Nuclear weapons proliferation. Nuclear weapons capability is connected to nuclear power capability. Governments and nuclear strategists acknowledge that an expanded nuclear industry increases the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. This is a risk, society and future generations should not be asked to bear.

 

5. There are better options. A multi-strategy approach to climate change is now gaining traction among academics, business leaders and policy-makers. This strategy involves using a combination of conservation initiatives, existing renewable energy technologies and carbon capture and storage. Nuclear power need not be part of our future energy mix.

 

“There are technically achievable, more sustainable and less risky options for fighting climate change,” said Walker. “Massive investment in nuclear power could divert resources from these options and leave us with environmental and social challenges for our children and grandchildren to clean up. All these factors continue to make nuclear power as unacceptable to us now, as it was 20 years ago.”

 

 

About The Ethical Funds Company

Launched in 1992, The Ethical Funds Company is Canada’s leading manager of socially responsible mutual funds. In addition to evaluating all investments according to their financial, social and environmental performance and outlook, The Ethical Funds Company promotes corporate accountability – making good companies better – and gives investors a voice in encouraging sustainable business practices.

 

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Bob Walker

Vice President, Sustainability 

The Ethical Funds Company

Tel: 604.714.3833

http://www.ethicalfunds.com/

 

Jane Mitchell 

Public Relations 

The Ethical Funds Company

Tel: 604.714.3843

http://www.ethicalfunds.com

 

®Ethical, and The Ethical Funds Company are registered marks owned by Ethical Funds Inc.

ACTION: Close Guantánamo

From Amnesty International, an action Canadians can take.

Close Guantánamo

The U.S. detention centre at Guantánamo Bay is an open attack on human rights. Torture. No fair trials. People locked up for years without being charged with any crime. Guantánamo is part of a system that breaks international law and tells the world it’s okay to abuse human rights. It’s time to close Guantánamo.

Demand that the Canadian government add our voice to the worldwide call to the U.S. to stop torture and embrace justice

Unlawful incarceration, indefinite detention, legal limbo, repeated interrogations, cut-off from family and community, no opportunity to prove innocence, suicides, hunger strikes, despair. Join others across Canada to end the systematic violation of human rights …

TAKE ACTION

There are several things you can do to help close down Guantánamo. Follow the steps below to send email messages to the US President and/or the Canadian Prime Minister and tell others how they can get involved, too.

Blog for Choice

Women bloggers from the USA have issued a call inviting bloggers worldwide to mark today, January 22, 2007, as a day to blog for choice. Tell us and your readers, they say, why you’re pro-choice.

For me, that’s an easy job. I am pro-choice because I believe reproductive freedom is a human right. If women are to ever be equal participants at all levels of society, then the freedom to reproduce at a time of her choosing, or not at all, is entirely up to the individual woman, and not her husband, her family, her government, her doctor, her church, her god(dess).

Further Update: SWC Sit-in

BC women seem to be making a bit of headway with Minister Oda.  Here’s the latest:

BC Coalition for Women's Equality  and Human Rights in Canada

For Immediate Release

Minister Oda Agrees to Meet with Women's Organizations in BC

(Vancouver, 19 January, 2007)  Representatives of the BC Coalition for
Women's Equality and Human Rights in Canada, an ad hoc coalition of women's
organizations, met with Minister Bev Oda by teleconference for one hour this
afternoon. This hastily scheduled meeting was convened as a result of a
demonstration and a brief occupation of the Status of Women Canada office in
Vancouver yesterday. 

Coalition representatives expressed disappointment with Minister Oda's
explanations and defense of the Harper Governments decisions to:

-slash $5m dollars from the SWC budget
-close 12 of 16 regional offices of SWC
-remove women's equality from the program mandate
-make research, advocacy and lobbying ineligible for funding
-cancel the Court Challenges Program
-refuse to move forward on proactive pay equity legislation
-cancel the Pan-Canadian child-care program
-fail to move forward on its CEDAW obligations.

In the face of Oda's defense of these decisions, the Coalition is determined
to redouble its efforts to have them reversed. 

Minister Oda agreed to meet with representatives of BC women's organizations
to discuss the Harper government cuts, the changes this government has
introduced and its failure to move forward on women's human rights. No date
has been fixed for this meeting. The Coalition asked that it take place as
soon as possible as the government cuts take effect on March 31. Given that
the House will be in session January 29, representatives advised Minister
Oda that they were available to meet evenings or weekends in order to ensure
that the meeting takes place as expeditiously as possible. 

Cecily Nicholson, of Vancouver Status of Women, noted that thousands of
women across the country have expressed their dismay about these decisions.

"And our concerns are shared." says Fatima Jaffer, spokesperson for the
Coalition. "Provincial and Territorial ministers also highlighted their
dissatisfaction with Minister Oda's leadership. They decided not to invite
the Minister to their meeting early February in Toronto to plot a national
strategy because they say she shows so little interest in women's issues."

- 30 -

For more information, please contact:  Shelagh Day, 604.872.0750, Shauna
Paull, 604.209.5776, Fatima Jaffer, 604.838.3599.

Update: SWC Sit-in

Minister Beverley Oda to Meet with Women after Vancouver Office Occupation  

Women in British Columbia have obtained a meeting with federal Minister
Beverley Oda after occupying the Status of Women (SWC) office in Vancouver
yesterday.  The meeting between BC women and the federal Minister
responsible for the Status of Women will take place this afternoon, Friday,
January 19th at 3:30 (PT).  Following a noon time rally yesterday, women
occupied the Vancouver office to protest its closure by the federal
government.  They remained in the office until 11 p.m. last night at which
time Minister Oda’s staff agreed to the hour long meeting today.  

The federal government announced this past December that it will close
twelve of its sixteen regional Status of Women Canada offices, including the
one in Vancouver.  Women in BC say that these closures contradict a campaign
promise made by Stephen Harper during last year’s federal election. At that
time, he committed in writing to the Canadian Feminist Alliance for
International Action (FAFIA) to improve the situation of women's human
rights in Canada.  

A year later, the work of women's and human rights groups is threatened and
under attack.  The office closures are part of a previously announced $5
million (43 per cent) reduction to the operating budget of Status of Women
Canada (SWC), the lead federal department for gender equality. The Harper
government has also announced the elimination of the Court Challenges
Program, the termination of funding for all advocacy related work by women's
groups and the removal of the word equality from the mandate of SWC's
Women's Program 

Provincial and Territorial Ministers have also expressed their
dissatisfaction with Minister Oda’s leadership.  According to a report from
the Ontario Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Sandra Pupatello,
the Harper government has shown such little interest in women's issues that
provinces and territories will meet on their own in early February to plot a
national strategy.  

Since the federal government’s announcement of the office closures, women
across the country have undertaken a variety of actions to signal their
concern with the federal government’s approach to Status of Women in Canada.

For more information, contact Nancy Peckford, 613-292-7941, Shelagh Day at
604-872-0750, and Shauna Paull at 604-209-5776

Proposal to get US out of Iraq

Forwarded to me by the Feminist Peace Network, a comprehensive proposal to get the US troops out of Iraq.  And isn’t it about time?  Will Afghanistan be next?  PMS, can you read my lips?

http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/?p=65

Lynn Woolsey’s Plan for withdrawal from Iraq
Posted by admin on January 19th, 2007

Adapted from Sheroes:
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) has come up with a comprehensive proposal to withdraw our troops from Iraq. Her plan includes the following points:

a.. Withdraw all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months from the date of enactment.
b.. Accelerate, during the six-month transition, training of a permanent Iraqi police force.
c.. Prohibit the continued funding, except for the redeployment of troops currently in Iraq, of combat troops to Iraq.
d.. Prohibit any permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. (Despite official denials, bases are under construction, including one that includes a miniature golf course and a Pizza Hut).
e.. Authorize, if requested by the Iraqi government, U.S. support for an international stabilization force, which would stay no longer than two years.
f.. Prohibit U.S. participation in any long-term Iraqi oil production sharing agreements before the enactment by the Iraqi government of new regulations governing the industry.
g.. Authorize an array of non-military assistance in Iraq, including reconstruction of a public-health system; destruction of land mines, recovery of ancient relics; and distribution of compensatory damages for civilian casualties.
h.. Honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women by providing full funding for every health-care treatment, and benefit that they are entitled to under current law.

Co-sponsors of the bill include: Barbara Lee (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), Diane Watson (CA), James McGovern (MA), Barney Frank (MA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Chaka Fattah (PA), Jerrold Nadler (NY), John Conyers Jr. (MI), Wm. Lacy Clay (MO), Steve Cohen (TN), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Bob Filner (CA), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Donald Payne (NJ) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX).Joshua Holland has an excellent blurb about this bill over at Alternet. He writes,

“The sad thing is that neither the AP, nor the New York Times bothered even to report it, and in the Washington Post it merited just a single, off-hand sentence in one of Dana Milbank’s typically snotty little columns. I wonder why that seems so familiar.”

Holland suggests that you write to your representatives and ask them to support the bill. Also, please write to your local media and tell them that this is important legislation and they should be covering the story. And please, forward this blog to your lists. Let’s make some noise about this issue!