organization:canadian government

Artist finds inspiration in Canadian government’s attempt to silence her | Environment | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/17/artist-inspiration-canada-silence-climate

#Canada, under the government of Stephen Harper, has exhibited little patience for dissent. The government has muzzled government scientists, insulted Nasa climate experts, and dismissed environmental protesters as dangerous radicals.

But there is apparently one woman whom the government can’t shut up: the Toronto environmental writer, illustrator and activist Franke James, who turned the efforts to silence her into material for a new book.

Banned on the Hill: A True Story about Dirty Oil and Government Censorship, released this week, shows how Canadian bureaucrats tried to silence James because her views on climate change clashed with the Harper government’s push to develop Alberta’s tar sands.

The story is told through visual essays as well as official emails obtained by James, in which government bureaucrats discuss the troublesome artist and her work.

#art #activisme #pétrole #sables_bitumeux #pollution #censure #intimidation

Canada : 11 orques prises au piège dans la glace ont réussi à se libérer
http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_Canada_11_orques_prises_au_piege_dans_la_glace_ont_reussi_a_se_liberer_RP

MONTREAL - Onze orques épaulards prises dans les glaces de la baie d’Hudson (nord du Québec) sont parvenues à se libérer grâce à Mère nature, échappant à une mort certaine, a indiqué jeudi à l’AFP le maire du village inuit voisin qui avait tiré la sonnette d’alarme.

Les deux adultes et neuf jeunes mammifères marins, appelés baleines tueuses en Amérique du Nord, sont libres grâce à Mère nature, s’est réjoui par téléphone Peter Inukpuk, l’édile d’Inukjuak, communauté de 1.200 habitants située à 1.500 km au nord de Montréal.

Une vidéo publiée sur le site de la télévision canadienne CBC avait montré précédemment que les baleines étaient contraintes de respirer à la surface de l’eau à tour de rôle par un trou dans la glace.

Le trou était en train de se refermer et les orques étaient dans un état de panique dangereux, a raconté M. Inukpuk, dont le village se trouvait à une trentaine de kilomètres du piège.

Mais, heureusement, a-t-il expliqué, la nouvelle lune a activé un courant marin qui a ouvert la banquise et créé un chenal jusqu’aux eaux libres de glace, à environ 35 km de là.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QZI5PrVUqg

Le Canada et l’Industrie minière

Repéré sur la liste « Critical geography »

Canada just inaugurated an Extractive Industries Institute. this initiative is kind of surprising, given that

(a) it focuses exclusively on mining - maybe no wonder considering all the junior companies that are inscribed on Canadian Stock Exchanges

(b) it leaves out the most important country, the DRCongo, where Canadian companies own a great proportion of mines.

http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/NAT-112381631-HKW

dominionpaper.ca/articles/1195

Timothy Raeymaekers, Lecturer
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland

It is hideous, but unsurprising. Canada has veered sharply to the right, and the government is reorienting its foreign aid policies to support the development of extractive industries.

Also the government now has one of the most retrograde policies regarding anti-retroviral drugs and transferring technology to the Third World.

There are not expletives vile enough to describe such a contemptible
approach to policy.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1295539--canadian-development-aid-takes-on-corporate-colouring

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1296216--harper-government-fails-africa-on-aids-drugs

Tyler McCreary, York University
Toronto, Canada

Via Noah Quastel de l’Université de Vancouver

Au Canada - Un musée des civilisations transformé en musée de l’histoire pour glorifier les batailles... #bigfail précisent les membres de l’association des enseignants...

Here is one little discussed gem, which certainly goes to the meaning of history and how we reflect on its narratives, brought to our attention by the Canadian University Teachers Association (hardly a bastian of hard line ’crits’) but which should give pretty deep cause to concern about anyone with a ’critical’ view of anything: The Canadian government is dis-assembling key exhibits on social and cultural history and transforming the (museum formerly known as) Museum of Civilization and replacing with a Museum of History, seemingly dedicated to glorifying military battles.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Museum+Civilization+changes+mistake+university+teachers/7405788/story.html

Noah Quastel LLB LLM
PhD Candidate UBC Geography
1127 Semlin Drive
Vancouver, BC V5L 4K3
Phone ; 778 709 4496

#canada #musées #histoire #manipulation #perception #visuelisation #géographie-critique #cartographie-radicale

World’s biggest #geoengineering experiment ’violates’ UN rules | the guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoengineering

A controversial American businessman dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean as part of a geoengineering scheme off the west coast of Canada in July, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Lawyers, environmentalists and civil society groups are calling it a “blatant violation” of two international moratoria and the news is likely to spark outrage at a United Nations environmental summit taking place in India this week.

#géoingénierie #climat #nations_unies

The Northwest Passage is already Canadian - The Globe and Mail

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-northwest-passage-is-already-canadian/article4356756/?service=mobile

ALors on dira „Passage du Nord-Ouest” ou „Passage Canadien du Nord-Ouest” ou „Passage du Nord-Ouest canadien” ?

Michael Byers

Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009

Like motherhood and apple pie, Arctic sovereignty is difficult to oppose.

So when Conservative MP Daryl Kramp introduced a motion on Oct. 5 to rename the Northwest Passage the “Canadian Northwest Passage,” the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois quickly jumped on board.

It’s time to reconsider that move - before the motion is put to a final vote. Renaming the Northwest Passage would weaken our legal claim, offend the Inuit and contradict centuries of Canadian history.

The proposed name change will not strengthen our claim in international law because the dispute “crystallized” in 1985. After the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea sailed through without seeking permission, the Canadian government drew “straight baselines” around the Arctic islands and asserted that the channels within them were “internal waters” subject to the full force of Canadian law.

Très intéressante recension d’Electronic Intifada sur les fabrications d’un « journaliste » anti-palestinien et anti-libanais. Et de constater qu’après de pareilles fabrications, on peut encore parfaitement travailler. Revealed : producer of propaganda BBC report on Gaza attack has history of fabrication
http://electronicintifada.net/content/revealed-producer-propaganda-bbc-report-gaza-attack-has-history-fabrication/11532

In 2002, the Toronto Star quoted CBC’s Macdonald saying that Martin eventually admitted that his source for the fake Hizballah quote was Walid Phares (“Curious silence greets discredited Hezbollah tale,” 13 December 2002).

A former top-ranking political leader of the far-right sectarian Lebanese Forces militia, Phares has reinvented himself in recent years as a “terrorism expert.” Last year he was controversially given a top job as part of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s team of Middle East policy advisors.

The Canadian press caught onto the story in 2002 because the fabricated quote appeared at a time when the Canadian government was considering a ban on Hizballah’s political-social wing. The quote appeared to be decisive in the ban going through, although the government denied that was the case after the CBC exposed the quote to be false.

Fermer Guantanamo ? Ça n’est pas aussi facile que d’obtenir un Prix Nobel de la paix. The New Villain at Guantanamo Is Canada
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-15/the-new-villain-at-guantanamo-is-canada.html

Canada’s hesitation has had a dangerous ripple effect at Guantanamo. The chief U.S. prosecutor, Brigadier General Mark R. Martins, has wisely sought to reach plea bargains with detainees willing to testify against inmates considered higher up the al- Qaeda ladder. By leaving Khadr in limbo, Canada has jeopardized similar deals with other inmates.

One detainee, Soufiyan Barhoumi, a minor al-Qaeda figure from Algeria, is willing to testify against Abu Zubaydah, the Palestinian whom President George W. Bush accused of being al- Qaeda’s chief of operations. Yet Zubaydah, who has been held without charges for a decade and was waterboarded 83 times, has also been described by military and law enforcement sources as little more than a travel agent for the terrorist group.

Charging and trying Zubaydah could resolve the questions about his past and shed light on the torture he suffered. That seems less likely to happen without Barhoumi’s cooperation, which is contingent on repatriation to Algeria. His lawyer told the New York Times, “the fact that Khadr remains at Guantanamo beyond when he was supposed to be transferred is a significant hindrance in my client’s willingness to participate in negotiations with the government.”

KenRoth
UN Committee against Torture accuses #Canada of complicity in torture in #Afghanistan & #Syria. http://trib.al/lT5Wz9

Stop Being Poor: U.S. Piracy Watch List Hits A New Low With 2012 Report | Michael Geist
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6456/125

the most shameful inclusion in this year’s report are a series of countries whose primarily fault is being poor.  For example, the list includes Guatemala, a small country the size of Tennessee with a per capita GDP of just over $5,000. It is coming out of an economic depression that had a severe impact on rural income. (...)

The same tactic is employed against countries such as Costa Rica (81st per capita GDP with complaints that more resources should be allocated to enforcement) or Romania (77th per capita GDP with complaints about more resources on enforcement). Moreover, with repeated complaints against countries seeking to ensure adequate access to medicines for their citizens or access to books in schools, this year’s report hits a new low. It demonstrates the failure of the enforcement agenda and stands as an embarrassment for one of the world’s richest countries to prioritize its IP rights over human and economic rights in the developing world.

#propriété_intellectuelle #etats-unis #inégalités #pauvreté #santé #éducation

The Libya Mission One Year Later : The rules of engagement
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Libya+Mission+Year+Later+rules+engagement/6176389/story.html

The Libyan rebels operating the ship openly acknowledged they were delivering the weapons to their forces in Misrata.

Skjerpen radioed to NATO headquarters for instructions. The response was swift: let the ship sail on so the crew could deliver their deadly cargo.

A NATO senior officer, Italian Vice Admiral Rinaldo Veri had boasted just weeks earlier that the alliance’s blockade closed the door on the flow of arms into Libya.

Not quite. While the UN embargo was clearly aimed at preventing the delivery of weapons both to Gadhafi and those fighting him, NATO looked the other way when it came to the rebels. Hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and arms breezed through the blockade, exposing what critics say was Canada and NATO’s real motive during the Libyan war — regime change under the guise of protecting civilians.

Oil lobby’s financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed | Environment | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/11/oil-lobby-money-obama-keystone

New analysis of oil industry contributions to members of Congress has revealed the level of the oil lobby’s financial firepower that Barack Obama can expect to face in the November elections if he refuses to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Now Maplight, an independent research group in Berkeley, California, that tracks the influence of money in politics, has conducted an analysis of oil industry contributions to members of Congress supporting the pipeline.

The study, which is due to be published on Wednesday, studied industry contributions to members of the House of Representatives which passed a bill last July that would have forced Obama to speed up approval of the Keystone project.

http://ecologie.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/01/13/quand-le-lobby-petrolier-arrose-le-congres-pour-favoriser-un-o

#industrie_pétrolière #lobby #corruption

#Canada kept detection of salmon virus #secret | Seattle Times Newspaper
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016890291_salmonvirus30m.html

A decade before this fall’s salmon-virus scare, a Canadian government researcher said she found a similar virus in more than 100 wild fish from Alaska to Vancouver Island.

Canadian officials never told the public or scientists in the United States about those tests — not even after evidence of the virus discovered in October was treated as an international emergency, according to documents and emails obtained by The Seattle Times.

#recherche #mer #santé #information #cdp

Former Guantánamo Prisoner Speaks Out on Lawsuit Seeking Bush’s Arrest in Canada for Torture
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/20/former_guantnamo_prisoner_speaks_out_on

Police in British Columbia have taken extra security measures ahead of today’s visit by former President George W. Bush, who is set to speak at an economic summit. The security is to handle hundreds of protesters, but Amnesty International has also called on the Canadian government to arrest Bush and either prosecute or extradite him for the torture of prisoners in the so-called “war on terror.”

Pfff

#Bush #justice_internationale #torture

Canada clamps down on criticism of Israel - Al Jazeera English
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117206368409551.html

In other words, the CPCCA is supporting a definition whereby individuals who focus their attention on Israeli human rights violations, yet don’t level an equal amount of condemnation on other states for their human rights violations, can be labeled as anti-Semitic. This is obviously problematic since Palestine solidarity activists - like any other people - have commitments that make it impossible to engage with every issue they are otherwise interested in. They shouldn’t be labeled as anti-Semitic due to their inability to participate in every single human rights struggle happening around the world.

Another dangerous recommendation made by the CPCCA was that Canadian university administrators should condemn “discourse, events and speakers which are untrue, harmful, or not in the interest of academic discourse, including Israeli Apartheid Week”. Even the use of the word “apartheid” in relation to Israel is anti-Semitic, the CPCCA found, since it amounts to the “denial of the Jewish people their right to self- determination... by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”.

Ahead of U.N. Vote, a Possible Return to Mideast Talks - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/world/middleeast/25mideast.html

Canada, which is also strongly opposed, has been lobbying smaller countries to tell the Palestinians that they will not to vote with them in September.

Oui, c’est un peu minable.

Du coup, la feuille de choux diplomatique du Premier ministre canadien vous présente l’affaire sous l’angle exactement inverse : ce sont les Palestiniens, désormais, qui font du lobbying pour contrer la position canadienne :

Palestinians pushing to minimize Canadian opposition to statehood | Embassy - Canada’s Foreign Policy Newspaper
http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/palestinians-07-20-2011

The Palestinian delegation to Canada is pushing hard, including sending in a big-name politician, to minimize the effects of Canadian opposition to their bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations this fall.

Fear and no clean clothing: Amira Hass preparing to sail for Gaza - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/fear-and-no-clean-clothing-amira-hass-preparing-to-sail-for-gaza-1.369611

Heap said he was not surprised by the Canadian government’s opposition to the flotilla, and claimed Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been a founder of a think tank that supported South Africa during the apartheid regime and that opposed sanctions against the regime and the release of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.