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Global Research News Hour - 08/20/13

Global Research News Hour - 07/29/13

Global Research News Hour - 07/08/13

Canada's Bitumen Cliff; Haiti - Nine Years After the Coup with contributors: Cynthia McKinney, Brendan Hayley, Roger Annis, Michael Welch

Global Research News Hour - 07/01/13

Canada in Afghanistan: We Stand on Guard for Empire

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, there was relatively little opposition to a military intervention in Afghanistan. The motivation for the war initially was retaliation for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Operation Enduring Freedom, as it was called, was sold to the public as necessary to rout out the Al Qaeda terrorist networks active in Afghanistan which were fostered by the Taliban government. Aided and abetted by the Northern Alliance, essentially a faction of warlords and opium gangsters with no particular commitment to democracy and human rights, NATO successfully overthrew the Taliban government and installed a new government in Kabul. The motivation for the dispatch of foreign troops to this region was soon sold to the public as an “errand of mercy,” an effort to liberate women and institute democracy and safeguard freedom. Rarely, if ever, did mainstream media or Canada’s political representatives ever question the aim of the mission. The spectrum of the debate about Canada’s contribution to the war and occupation was restricted to questions about whether or not a military intervention was the best way to bring about change in the land-locked Central Asian country. Jack Layton of the NDP, for example, speaking in debate in April of 2007 on the resolution to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan framed his argument in terms of the mission being “a George Bush style combat mission” which was failing to secure peace and security for the people of Afghanistan. He said, “It is unbalanced and overwhelmingly focused on aggressive counter-insurgency. The humanitarian situation is simply not improving and the effort cannot be won militarily.”[1] A recent anthology of essays put out by the University of Toronto Press endeavours to challenge the dominant meme around the Afghanistan war and occupation. AS the title suggests, Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan, edited by Jerome Klassen and Greg Albo, portrays the war as principally one of imperial conquest. Utilizing recent research derived from media, government, and NGO reports, along with interviews from within the country, the book takes a critical look at the war effort with a particular emphasis on Canada’s role and how motives around capitalizing on Afghanistan’s resource wealth and the so-called “Silk Road Starategy” may better explain Canada’s involvement. In this week’s programme, Researcher Michael Skinner of York University, author of the essay The Empire of Capital and the Latest Inning of the Great Game outlines his analysis of the imperial aims of the occupation. Invoking the writings of former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, he eloquently explains the geo-strategic significance of the war effort. Importantly, he explores how Canada’s corporate sector, particularly the infamous mining sector, stands to profit from this heavily propagandized Western intervention. Retired University of Winnipeg Geography Professor John Ryan was one of the few Western academics to visit and report on his experiences in Afghanistan in a unique period in the late 1970s. AT this time, the short-lived Taraki government put in place social reforms that boosted rights for women and prospects for farmers. Ryan believes it was the involvement of the CIA that ultimately led to the collapse of Afghan social standards which is now being invoked as the leading reason for Canada’s continued involvement in the country. Ryan speaks to us in the second half hour. Finishing off the programme, social justice and peace campaigner Derrick O’keefe, talks about the main obstacles for the peace movement in Canada, and how he thinks those obstacles can be overcome. He too contributed an essay to Empire’s Ally, entitled,  Bringing Ottawa’s Warmakers to Heel: The Anti-War Movement in Canada.

Global Research News Hour - 06/17/13

Canada Politics: Deception and Betrayal in the Conservative Party

This week’s programme looks back ten years to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race of 2003 which turned out to be the party’s last before it merged with the rival Canadian Alliance, led by leader Stephen Harper. The current Conservative Party has been racked with accusations of scandal and corruption. At least three Canadian Senators, hand-picked by the Prime Minister, are having their housing and living expenses reviewed, two Conservative Members of Parliament are being taken to task for improper accounting of their election expenses, and a court case recently determined that “there was an orchestrated effort to suppress votes during the 2011 election campaign by a person with access to the CIMS database” which is “maintained and controlled by the CPC (Conservative Party of Canada)”. [2][3][4] And notoriously, one of the Prime Minister’s staffers cut Senator Mike Duffy a personal cheque for $90,000 to make up for the funds the Senator owed. [5] This is astonishing behaviour for a political party which rose to power in 2006 promising accountability and integrity in office. [6] But David Orchard and his supporters questioned the ethics of the party a long time ago. Orchard contested the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party back in 2003. Orchard relied on the support of grass-roots people, myself among them, who were opposed to government policies on free trade, environmental neglect, and Canadian support for imperial wars abroad. [7] It was through Orchard’s support that Peter Mackay became leader of the party. Mackay then betrayed the condition of Orchard’s support by orchestrating a merger with the right-wing US-Republican style Canadian Alliance Party, which was then led by Stephen Harper. [8] This betrayal, in addition to some of the other shenanigans which played out in the months during the leadership campaign and leading up to the vote to merge the parties in December provides a critical context for assessing this party’s commitment to ethics, responsible conduct and fair play. Orchard, and many other traditional Progressive Conservatives, saw the Canadian Alliance as out of sync with the traditional trajectory of the PC Party, the Party which established Canada as a nation in 1867. The PCs historically championed Canadian sovereignty. The Canadian Alliance advocated closer political and economic ties with the United States. The Canadian Alliance boasted a much larger membership than the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003. Through no great surprise therefore, the leader of the Canadian Alliance, Stephen Harper, easily secured the leadership of the merged Conservative Party, which went on to power in 2006. [9] Orchard’s political advisor, campaign manager and long-time associate Marjaleena Repo speaks to the Global Research News Hour about the campaign, the issues, the subsequent legal battles and where she believes the Campaign for Canada needs to focus its energies.

Global Research News Hour - 06/12/13

June 2013 marks the tenth anniversary of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's final leadership Convention in which Peter Mackay secured the leadership with the help of rival David Orchard. Mackay broke Orchard's critical condition for support, namely that he would not merge the party with the Canadian Alliance, a right of centre US Republican-style party led by Stephen Harper. This episode looks back at that convention, the Orchard campaign, and some of the activities that played out during that leadership bid with implications for the current government in Ottawa.

Global Research News Hour - 05/20/13

Globalization Watch: Stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

“Through this agreement, the Obama Administration is seeking to boost U.S. economic growth and support the creation and retention of high-quality American jobs by increasing exports in a region that includes some of the world’s most robust economies and that represents more than 40 percent of global trade.”[1] Statement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative “I think we need to look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the neo-liberal arm of the US pivot at Asia. So we have all these countries in South East Asia that basically have more incentive to do business with China….Many policy papers state the importance of South-East Asia in …counterbalancing the influence of China in the region. So that is what I perceive the TPP to be.”  Nile Bowie Lost in the wake of headlines about controversies surrounding Canadian Senators’ housing and living expenses and allegations of a Toronto big city Mayor ailing from an apparent crack addiction, is the important negotiations on a major trade and investment deal taking place in Lima, Peru this past week. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had its origins in the 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement or the P4 which involved the countries of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore, and was aimed at liberalizing trade in those countries. [2] This deal was expanded in 2008 to include the US in negotiations and by 2009, the TPP began its first round of talks. [3], [4]. There are currently twelve negotiating partners in this comprehensive pact. In addition to the P4, and the US there are Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and Malaysia, with Mexico and Canada having joined the negotiations last October and Japan jumping on board in March. [5], [6] TPP is the latest in a string of numerous free trade agreements that proponents say will generate increased economic activity between and within countries thereby leading to greater prosperity for citizens. [7] Critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and its numerous successors argue however that these agreements really are not about trade. They are mechanisms by which corporations with international reach can overcome barriers, regulations, and other restrictions on their profit-making activities. [8] Three critics from three separate countries explain their concerns in this week’s instalment of the Global Research News Hour. Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner for the Ottawa-based Council of Canadians provides his group’s analysis not only of the TPP, but also the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA). Kristen Beifus of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition dissects the impacts of free trade on Americans and the concerns specific to the TPP. Kuala Lampur-based Nile Bowie provides his analysis of TPP in terms of its impacts on Malaysia where elections have recently been held. His commentaries on TPP appear on the globalresearch website. References 1. http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/november/united-states-trans-pacific-partnership 2. “Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement” 2005 http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacific/main-agreement.pdf 3. Daniels, Chris (10 February 2008). “First step to wider free trade”. New Zealand Herald. 4. US TRADE Representative TPP Round Updates; http://www.ustr.gov/tpp 5. “Mexico: Unexplored opportunities”. TPP Talk. New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. 10 October 2012. http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/2-Trade-Relationships-and-Agreements/Trans-Pacific/1-TPP-Talk/0-TPP-talk-10-Oct-2012.php 6. Canada Formally Joins Trans-Pacific Partnership” (Press release). Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. 9 October 2012; http://www.international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/news-communiques/2012/10/09a.aspx?view=d 7) Dr. Claudio Loser, May 6, 2013; Where Trade Is Free, Powerful Economic Growth Is The Norm; Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/05/06/where-trade-is-free-powerful-economic-growth-is-the-norm/ 8) Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, March 27, 2013, Truthout; http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15353-transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations

Global Research News Hour - 05/06/13

Aftermath of the Boston Bombings: The FBI, Canada and the Politics of Terror

“In terrorism stings, it’s really only the FBI that’s making it possible for people who otherwise couldn’t acquire weapons, who couldn’t build a bomb to move forward in an act of terrorism like we’re seeing in these sting operations. So, it’s really the FBI that’s making the crime possible in a way that they aren’t with traditional drug stings even though it’s very much the same type of tactic that they’re using today.” -Trevor Aaronson “At different points of time in history non-Anglo and Francophone Canadians and including Francophones during the independence movement in Quebec were terrorists… everybody’s been interned. Every group has been interned or labeled treasonous when it was convenient to do so.” - Rocco Galati Speculation and skepticism percolates through the World Wide Web with regard to the official narrative of the Boston Bombings. On the day of the attacks, the FBI was placed in charge of the official investigation. [1] To date, critical questions about the FBI’s role in these and other terrorist plots have yet to be addressed. As documented on Global Research, the FBI has been caught deliberately lying about their actions and activities. [2] Thoroughly documented, the FBI has been pivotal in the manufacture of several terrorist plots in the US. [3] Trevor Aaronson’s pioneering work on the subject of FBI involvement in infiltrating and entrapping terrorist suspects made the cover of Mother Jones magazine in 2011 and became listed as one of the top 25 most censored stories of 2011-2012 by the media democracy organization Project Censored. This history is critical background in any sober analysis of the incident. In Canada, the Conservative government invoked the Boston attacks to rush through legislation resurrecting previously sunsetted anti-terrorism provisions of preventative arrest and secret investigative hearings. By an amazing coincidence,  the same week the Canadian Parliament was debating the new anti-terrorism bill, the RCMP announced the arrest of two individuals implicated in a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train. [4] The RCMP said little about the evidence of their guilt though they helpfully volunteered the perpetrator’s links with Al Qaeda in Iran. Considering the enmity being expressed toward Iran by the US and Canada among other Western Countries, this tidbit interestingly parallels the innuendo of Iraq’s alleged links to terrorism in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War. In an effort to deconstruct the propaganda around the War on Terrorism’s biggest PR boost in years, the Global Research News Hour delves into the Boston Bombings and its aftermath. In this week’s show, Trevor Aaronson, author of “The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism” examines the agency’s role of deliberately creating the plots they then disrupt. Aaronson’s analysis speaks to the FBI’s focus on marginalized individuals at the expense of real dangers. Then, Canadian Constitutional Lawyer Rocco Galati trashes the recently passed Combating Terrorism Act as a completely unnecessary threat to civil liberties with consequences that go beyond Islamic extremism. Finally, Global Research’s Julie Lévesque provides a much needed overview of the Boston Bombings legend and the critical questions the mainstream media should be asking but is not.

Global Research News Hour - 04/29/13

Terrorists R Us: The Boston Mass Casualty Attack, Lockdown and High Profile Manhunt

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  – Benjamin Franklin, 1759 The mass casualty causing attack during the Boston Marathon, together with the high profile arrest of two men in Canada charged with plotting a terrorist attack on a commuter train have captivated the attention of regular citizens. Fears have been ramped up to the point where Americans are tolerating if not welcoming martial law and erosions of civil liberties in the name of protection from the terrorist hordes. Witness the high-profile man-hunt for bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev. On April 19, the entire city of Boston was on lockdown. Residents told to lock themselves indoors while schools and businesses were closed while the entire transit system was shut down and SWAT teams took control of the streets. The home of one of the most famous and iconic popular resistance actions in history, the Boston Tea Party, unquestioningly complied with authorities this time around – all in the name of capturing one wounded man. Speaking of authorities, rigorous scrutiny of the authorities themselves may be in order. Speaking to the Global Research News Hour in December, Andy Lee Roth, the Associate Director of Project Censored spoke of the fourth story in PC’s list of most censored stories of 2011-2012… “…The FBI has a network of nearly 15,000 spies, moles and informants …whose job it is to infiltrate various communities within the United States, ostensibly to uncover terrorist plots …in many cases, those 15,000 spies, moles and informants are actually encouraging and then assisting the people in those communities in committing the very crimes that people are then busted for. So It’s a kind of set-up operation and it appears to be motivated by a desire on the FBI’s part to show that they are playing an effective role in the battle against terrorism on the home front.” He further pointed out… “This only works as a kind of PR strategy if the corporate media cooperate and basically take the government officials who speak on behalf of the program as the sole sources on the program’s efficacy. What’s not covered in the corporate media but what can be documented in independent media coverage is that most of these cases when they go to court the judge throws them out for lack of merit.” Without this context, the citizenry’s grasp of reality is imperiled. The common man and woman is left ripe for manipulation by powerful interests with another agenda entirely. This, the twenty-fourth installment of the Global Research News Hour, sees independent broadcaster Stephen Lendman try to provide some of this context as the War On Terrorism gets its biggest PR boost in years and as tensions with Syria, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are on the rise. Stephen Lendman is the host of the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network, author of BANKER OCCUPATION: Waging Financial War on Humanity and a frequent contributor to globalresearch.ca.

Haiti Nine Years Post-Coup and Canada’s Black Gold - 04/08/13

Coup D’Etat in Haiti It was nine years ago, on February 29, 2004 that the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from his Presidential Palace by US forces, assisted by Canada and France. In his place an unelected government was installed by the international community. Thousands of UN ‘peace-keepers’ were assigned to Haiti to protect and enforce the authority of this new government. Many representatives of the Haitian government were jailed. The government of Gerard Latortue,installed at the behest of international forces, cracked down hard on the poverty-stricken population, particularly in the slums of Cité Soleil and Bel Air in Port-au-Prince. Thousands of deaths were estimated to have resulted. [1] It is critical to understand this background and the subsequent erosion of domestic institutions and government agencies if one is to understand the current human security issues threatening this small Caribbean island country. It is especially important for Canadians to acquaint themselves with this history. Canadians generally have a positive opinion of their country and role in the world. They are inclined to believe Canada’s role in Haiti has been generally beneficent. Such inaccurate perceptions are aided and abetted by compliant politicians, governing and in opposition, and by a silent media. Roger Annis has been a long-time activist with the Canada-Haiti Action group, an organization that has been at the forefront of raising awareness about Canada’s true role in Haiti. The Global Research Hour spoke to him while he was in Winnipeg to discuss the nine year old coup, Canada’s role in the coup and other ways the Canadian government and Canadian NGOs and development agencies have undermined Haitian democracy and human rights. Annis also draws parallels between Canada’s treatment of Haitians, and its treatment of its own Indigenous population. Tar Sands Alberta: The Bitumen Cliff While opposition to the so-called ‘tar sands’ in Northern Alberta in Canada is generally framed as an environment versus economics debate, a new study from the Polaris Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives seems to point to an argument that surprisingly reveals the (black) gold rush for bitumen in Western Canada actually putting the Canadian economy at a tremendous disadvantage. Carleton University Graduate student and report co-author Brendan Hayley speaks to the Global Research News Hour about Canada’s Bitumen Cliff. America’s first African American President: An Obstacle to the Quest for Positive Change and Racial Equality In this exclusive Black History Month interview for the Global Research News Hour, former Georgia Congresswoman and US Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney talks about how America’s first African American President has been an obstacle rather than an asset in the quest for positive change and racial equality, and about what needs to be done to make substantive rather than cosmetic changes in the US political life.