Japan 1 Bluefin 0

THE NEW YORK TIMES has a sad report, "U.N. Rejects Export Ban on Atlantic Bluefin Tuna", by David Jolly and John Broder. If you're a polar bear, it's also a bummer, too.

Delegates at a United Nations conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears.

Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of bluefin, a fish prized especially by Japanese sushi lovers for its fatty belly flesh, have been severely depleted by years of heavy commercial fishing, while polar bears are considered threatened by hunting and the loss of sea ice because of global warming. The United States tried unsuccessfully to persuade delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or Cites, to provide strong international protection for the two species.

“It wasn’t a very good day for conservation,” said Juan Carlos Vásquez, a spokesman for the United Nations organization. “It shows the governments are not ready to adopt trade bans as a way to protect species.”

Then there's Japanese whale hunting, aka "research". I hope all those shiny, happy people in their Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans feel warm and fuzzy. Then there's dolphins, and "The Cove". A pox on all their keiretsu. Like Republicans, the only thing they respect is money — so I don't buy Japanese.

Harper Conservative Jim Abbott believes in torture...

So long as a a whisper-fine technicality allows it.

Let's put it another way. Despite the fact that the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence have absolutely vowed that the articles of the Geneva Conventions apply to all combatants in Afghanistan, Jim Abbott is defending the actions of Canada's Afghan jailers on the basis that "the enemy" does not constitute a "state" as defined in the various conventions of the laws of armed conflict of which Canada is seized.

Therefore, according to Abbott, torture is NOT prohibited... technically, y'know.

Resolved. Jim Abbott is not suggesting torture does not happen to detainees handed over to our Afghan jailers. He is suggesting it happens and it is perfectly legal because the combatants taken into custody are not protected by any convention.

That is the Harper Conservative position... once again emerging as a defence against charges of Canadian government complicity in inhumane treatment.

I guess Abbott now understands he has just put Canadian troops at great risk. Should a Canadian soldier fall into the hands of "the enemy" they can do pretty much anything they want to that individual, with Abbott's permission, because the technical line he's following works in both directions. If a bunch of insurgents, Talib or not, capture a Canadian soldier and start cutting off his body parts on a You Tube video, (when they're not pre-empted by Steve Harper trying to play one of the kewl kids), he'll just shrug it off because technically, our troops have no protection from partisan forces under the rules of armed conflict.

Tie me another yellow ribbon Abbott, you senseless fuckwad.

Opposition!(?)

This could get interesting.

I expect the Cons to come out at any moment and declare parliament treasonous or some such shit. Anything really that might distract or detract from the issue at hand.

If things were going well in Afghanistan...

This wouldn't be happening. (Emphasis mine)

This refusal to allow reporting of certain combat actions is one of the odd experiences of being at war with the Canadian military and I have complained about it for years, as have others. But the gag order on embedded reporters in Kandahar continues.

The excuse the Canadian Forces gives is that Taliban guerrillas might learn from immediate media accounts whether their warheads had hit a target or not, which would allow them to recalibrate.

That's a legitimate concern even though most Taliban firing isn't that sophisticated. Rockets are simply hurriedly stuck in the ground at a rough angle and fired off, usually to no effect.

However, I accept the need for caution and so I am not offering up the exact time or location of these incidents. But there should clearly be limits to all this secrecy.

What really concerns me here is that a tally of rocket attacks on Canadians never does get out. Not even days or weeks later, after a safe passage of time.

It's simply as if they never happened, and such censorship distorts our own sense of the war and its changing tempo.

Something most of our closest allies are aware of and realize that, if such stringent censorship was ever exposed, it would come back to bite them.

This is interesting because Canadian officers have become extremely skilled in recent years in appearing open towards the media, which they are compared to most Harper government departments.

Still, neither of our principal allies, the U.S. and British, imposes the same OPSEC restrictions that Canada does. They are more open.

So, if they're hiding the obvious ineffective rocket attacks from the Canadian public... what else are they hiding?

And who ordered them to hide it?

More from M@ and POGGE.

Corporations are people too!

PR Watch : "After the US Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as individuals when it comes to funding political campaigns, the self-described progressive firm, Murray Hill, Inc., took what it considers the next logical step: running for office in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District."

Washington Post : "In Maryland, independent candidates are not required to be registered voters. They can qualify for the fall ballot by collecting enough signatures from voters in their district -- about 4,500, in this case."

As a five year old company, Murray Hill Inc. does not meet the minimum age requirement of 25 however so a "designated human", the company's CEO, has been chosen to represent them.

The corporate candidate has its own Web site, a Facebook page with nearly 6,000 fans, and the online ad above that has drawn more than 187,000 hits.

“Vote for Murray Hill Incorporated — the best democracy money can buy.”

Heh. Well done.

That weird feeling...

Was You Tube abuser and abysmally bad Beatles cover artist, Steve Harper, blowing scripted sunshine up your ass.

Kady first:

Oh, I know what some of you are thinking: "Aha! You control freakish mainstream media types just don't want Canadians to be able to hear the prime minister speak without a filter!" But really, it's not always about the cuts, it's about taking part in the discussion -- asking follow-up questions, probing the answers, and yes, when necessary, saying, "Alright, let's move on to a different topic." It would be different if this actually had been an interactive chat, and the Canadians posing the questions were able to respond to the PM's replies, but it wasn't, and they weren't, and as Susan Delacourt points out, the resulting viewing experience was reminiscent of nothing so much as an oddly anodyne end-of-year outing.

And now, Susan:

The optics are the same; the PM, made up for TV, in a chair, fielding questions from an interviewer. The people who asked the questions were not permitted a chance to interact or ask follow-up questions. There was no one there to say -- hey, wait a minute, you didn't answer the question. Or, in the case of the Prime Minister saying that questions about Afghan detainees were an insult to the troops, after he said he didn't always answer critics with that retort, there was no one to say, well, that.
Moreover, I suspect that if the Google interviewer had asked a question that the Prime Minister didn't like, that would have been the last interview he did with Harper. That, I'm afraid, is the sorry reality here -- the "you're so dead at recess" strategy of media management. So that's business as usual too.

The Epic [Fail] of Guergis...[update x 2]

...continues:

Blogger A BCer in Toronto today posted an item regarding a claim on embattled Minister Helena Guergis’s official website that she holds an MBA from the University of Alberta. Apparently last year a community paper looked into the matter and after a little pressing a Guergis staffer testily admitted the Minister of State for Status of Women has “put on hold” her “aspirations” to attain a graduate degree.

Now go read A BCer in Toronto for more, including the smoking screenshots.

Something tells me her chances of completing an MBA - or apparently even an undergrad degree - at my university or any other (that doesn't involve an offer through email spam) are now less than zero. This is serious misrepresentation and at least an academic high crime.

If Harper keeps her on, then we know there's some serious dirt under the Conservative rug.

UPDATE (16 Mar 2010, 16:43 MST): Elizabeth Thompson at Eye on the Hill notes that:

A quick call to the University of Alberta confirms that Ms. Guergis is indeed the proud possessor of an MBA degree from that august institution - Class of 2009.

I've never made a "quick call" to any university and I study and work at the one in question. That aside, multiple internet searches of the University of Alberta website for any reference to Helena Guergis (alone or incombination with MBA, 2009, alumna, alumni, convocation, etc) only turns up three links: one to a PhD thesis, a reference to keynote speech in a 2008 China Institute newsletter, and an UofA in-the-press notice where she is indirectly mentioned. No reference to her receiving the MBA is mentioned in any of my searches - try for yourself. Nor does the Wikipedia list of notable UofA alumni include reference to Guergis, although her colleague Rona Ambrose is both there and on the UofA site. One would think that some mention of such a high profile graduate would exist somewhere in the intertubes, but this does not appear to be the case.

Further, allowing for the possibility that Guergis gained acceptance to the UofA MBA programme, the issue of where the Member and Secretary of State for the Status of Women would find the time to complete an MBA that does not seem to offer a distance education option, remains unaddressed. Nor has anything been brought forward to refute the reported claims from her staff that she had suspended her MBA studies.

So what we have are statements in her webpages, and the hearsay in a few lines from one reporter who claimed to call the UofA versus several conflicting and circumstantial news reports and credible conjecture. Lots of room in there.

Pending new and better information, I remain sceptical but completely willing to concede that she managed to earn an MBA. Although that in turn may raise an eyebrow about circumstances of her award.

minor UPPERDATE: It occurred to me that it might worthwhile to collect screen shots of member bios and sleuth out their credentials a little. Could be fun to see what turns up.

PLOT THICKENS: Via Holly commenting at BCL we find a note claiming that Guergis' MBA was attained prior to her political career:

Before her career in politics, Helena attained an MBA from the University of Alberta and owned a small business for seven years.

Was she "Class of 2009" or some other year before 2004, when she was first elected, or something else entirely? I suspect the Doctor may be involved.

(h/t BCL, and hearty well done to A BCer!)

From the chamber of sober second thought

Senator Mike Duffy, formerly of Corporate Television Vehicle™, has figured out what's wrong with modern journalism :

"When I went to the school of hard knocks, we were told to be fair and balanced," Duffy was quoted from his speech in yesterday’s issue of the Amherst Daily News. "That school doesn’t exist any more. Kids who go to King’s, or the other schools across the country, are taught from two main texts."

According to the Senator of Extra Pudding, those two main texts polluting young minds are : "Noam Chomsky and critical thinking"

Critical thinking. Oh, the horror.

Boulder Mountain drama... after the avalanche

A grieving Alberta widow wants to know why, even after clear avalanche warnings, an event which was clearly dangerous, especially to a bunch of weekend thrill-seekers, went ahead.

The executive director of the BC Snowmobile Federation provides an answer.

"Right now it's personal choice," Les Austin said in an interview from Revelstoke. "I don't believe there needs to be greater regulation. We need greater education and stuff like that so people can make better-informed decisions. That doesn't happen overnight."

Yeah. I guess a series of snowmobile triggered avalanches are pretty tough to absorb over all that noise. And as for the effect of their actions on everybody else?

And what of the time, cost and personal risk associated with rescue efforts for snowmobilers who get into trouble after wilfully ignoring avalanche warnings?

"You're right, we appreciate all the rescue efforts because without all those people this thing could have been worse than it was," he said.

Consequences of one's behaviour. Taught in primary school.

Of course, given all the warnings, we could just call it suicide and let the insurance companies provide the lesson.

In the meantime, there's always this.

Dear Frank

Good letter from Fern to Frank over at Dammit Janet :

My Letter to the Hon. Frank Iacobucci

Dear Sir,
I am writing to you as one private citizen of Canada to another.

As a former Supreme Court Justice and upholder of the Constitution, you must recognize that the government's move to employ you to examine the documents relevant to the Afghan detainee ruckus is, at least, not very popular among some knowledgeable commenters.

To many, me included, it is a mockery of the concept of Parliamentary supremacy.

It is, further, merely the latest in a long series of anti-democratic initiatives by this Conservative government.

No one questions your ability or your reputation. The issue is whether Parliament is to be allowed to do its job.

Please. Reject the assignment.

Yours truly,
fern hill

Phone: (direct) 416.865.8217 Fax: 416.865.7380
Email: fiacobucci (at) torys.com
Mail: 79 Wellington Street West, Suite 3000Box 270, TD CentreToronto, Ontario, M5K 1N2 Canada

I'm guessing Fern wouldn't mind if you copy and pasted that puppy with your own name under it.


Here's my letter :

Dear Frank :

In your last go round with whitewashing government complicity in torture, it took you 16 months to determine that even though :

1)CSIS and the RCMP "mistakenly" advised Egyptian and Syrian authorities that Canadian citizens Ahmad El Maati and Abdullah Almalki were "associated with Al Qaeda" and an "imminent threat to public security" and a "confessed terrorist" and that El Maati was "involved in a plan to commit a terrorist act in Canada", resulting in

2)El Maati being subjected to "electric shock to his hands, back and genitals, and sleep deprivation while being subjected to excruciatingly painful stress torture for days on end", and that subsequently

3)CSIS fired off a handy list of questions to be put to them,

you ultimately determined in your report that :

"I found no evidence that any of these of these officials were seeking to do anything other than carry out conscientiously the duties and responsibilities of the institutions of which they were part."

and

"It seems inevitable, in the struggle against terrorism that mistakes of various kinds will be made."

After which the government redacted "about 20% of your findings from the public document for national security reasons."

So, really, Frank, who gives a fuck what you think?

Yours truly,
Alison

Strongly advise sending Fern's letter instead.

Guergis to sue Air Canada employees?

For "slander", apparently, and "breach of privacy" for reporting her manic meltdown at Charlottetown Airport

"They" will never let Helena "hell hole" Handbasket go through with it of course.

Pity.

h/t Buckdog

That could be on rye . . .

WIRED MAGAZINE has a very disturbing report by Brendan I. Koerner, "Red Menace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation". It's about a mutant fungus that originated in Uganda, discovered in 1999, that is starting to spread.

Why should you care? Well, according to Mr. Koerner,

Stem rust is the polio of agriculture, a plague that was brought under control nearly half a century ago as part of the celebrated Green Revolution. After years of trial and error, scientists managed to breed wheat that contained genes capable of repelling the assaults of Puccinia graminis, the formal name of the fungus.

But now it’s clear: The triumph didn’t last. While languishing in the Ugandan highlands, a small population of P. graminis evolved the means to overcome mankind’s most ingenious genetic defenses. This distinct new race of P. graminis, dubbed Ug99 after its country of origin (Uganda) and year of christening (1999), is storming east, working its way through Africa and the Middle East and threatening India and China. More than a billion lives are at stake. “It’s an absolute game-changer,” says Brian Steffenson, a cereal-disease expert at the University of Minnesota who travels to Njoro regularly to observe the enemy in the wild. “The pathogen takes out pretty much everything we have.”

Indeed, 90 percent of the world’s wheat has little or no protection against the Ug99 race of P. graminis. If nothing is done to slow the pathogen, famines could soon become the norm — from the Red Sea to the Mongolian steppe — as Ug99 annihilates a crop that provides a third of our calories. China and India, the world’s biggest wheat consumers, will once again face the threat of mass starvation, especially among their rural poor. The situation will be particularly grim in Pakistan and Afghanistan, two nations that rely heavily on wheat for sustenance and are in no position to bear added woe. Their fragile governments may not be able to survive the onslaught of Ug99 and its attendant turmoil.

And it gets better:

Ug99 isn’t just on the march. It’s mutating, too: It has developed the ability to overcome resistance genes that were being used to combat it. At least four variants of the pathogen have been discovered to date, and each has the ability to knock out resistance genes once thought to be worthy substitutes for Sr31. The most troubling of these variants, first detected in Kenya in 2006, tears through Sr24, the gene that so many North American wheat producers rely on to keep P. graminis at bay. Another variant shreds Sr36, commonly used in the winter wheats of the Great Plains.

Can you make brownies with rye flour?

Steve reaches out to Youtube World

As PMO spokesthingey Dimitri Soudas pitches it somewhat awkwardly on YouTube :
Ask Your Questions to Prime Minister Harper :

Submit your questions for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his response to the Speech from the Throne and the recent budget. The Prime Minister will answer a selection of your top-voted questions in an exclusive YouTube interview next Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 7 p.m. ET.

It must have seemed like a pretty good idea at the time when they were kicking it around the PMO - avoiding reporters while controlling the message, getting down with new social media, and reaching out directly to the demographic with a solid majority lockdown on Youtubeworld - youth.

But as any working clown will tell you, teh youth are a very tough audience. A sampling of questions submitted to Steve so far :

lol look at this talkcanada guy trying to be all formal and serious on a crap website

can you explain how selling our Natural Resources is good for Canadians

Check out the proper way to crush a beer can with ur head!!! It rulez

why is the quality of this video so shitty?

Mr Harper this a question regarding what has happened to the Afghan detainees. Currently by having retired Supreme Court Justice Iacobucci look into the documents, you have only created a smokescreen to hide behind. You have not chosen a sitting judge who would actually have power to do a proper inquiry. As well you are currently in violation of the Constitution by withholding these documents from parliament. When will you be releasing the documents regarding the Afghan detainees to parliament?

This guy sounds like he just gargled a bucket of cum

i gotta question,?? which u will never reply to, ... why the fuck do you lie stephen Harper??

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LEGALIZE WEED ?

He hasn't listened to Canada for a long time, I'm Surprised he wants to start now. :/

What did you do during the time Parliament was prorogued besides sitting next to Wayne Gretzky and coming up with a plan to change the national anthem?

What's with the low-quality vid and the script reading...

I agree that the stimulus package was a good oppurtunity to further our advancements in green energy, but due to your lack of intrest in said topic, my scrotum gets itchy when I engage in sexual intercourse with multiple women. is this because of your lack of intrest in energy efficiency? If so what steps will you take to ensure the cleanliness of my yambag? Will you tax it? WE NEED answers Mr. Harper!

legalize marijuana?

When will your government end the waste of corporate tax cuts?

WHAT'S YOUR HAIR MADE OF?

Mr Prime Ribroast Minister, CAN I HAS CHEEZBURGAR?

Mr Harper, Will you please sing Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain" on live television?

Why have you not requested that the United States release Omar Khadr from the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp? He was just a child when he was arrested in Afganistan. His continuing detention puts Canada's image as a champion of human
rights in jeopardy. (thumbs up if you want Mr. Harper to reply to this question.)

My question is how can you live with yourself?

legalize marijuana .

stephen harper - can you please quit your job

I couldn't be bothered putting down questions for that dud Harper

Jeez At least make it watchable. I mean it's not 2005 anymore. You are the government and you can't afford a freaking HD camera... sad

I think the prime minister should invest in a steady cam and a better mic for his youtube rep... c'mon...

fucking numpty

How can you possibly justify not legalizing marijuana?

Why are we "fighting" for peace (contradiction)? As a Canadian i hear that we are the peacemakers who care about all beings but yet we barely support those who are less fortunate. If Canada is known as the peacemakers of the world and have great alliances (U.S.A) than why do we waste our much needed money on weapons of war instead of food and shelter for the world?

why wont you legalize weed ?

testicals. that is all.

I think I have a way to cut the deficit ... stop making Canadians pay for your makeup PM. You want to look the way you do - do it on your own darn dime.

I find it amusing that marijuana is the topic of perhaps 30% of the questions (probably more) and is currently the top 3 asked question

What agreement we have with Israel? Will you send troops for Israel to attack Iran?

BORING

With crime at an all time low, why get tough on it, as well as building more prisons, shouldn't we build more schools and hospitals?Is there nothing to be learned from californias budgeting nightmare experience?

Harper, why have you continued to ignore your own Accountability Act?

why are you such an asshole on climate change?

Would you debate legalization of small quantities of marijuana considering:
A:Tax money saved w/reduced policing/incarceration/court costs B:Tax Revenue
increases. We're able to make wine/beer. 99% do not! Resulting taxation income
is massive. C:Drug cartels make Billion$! Then expand prostitution/guns/armed
gangs D:Create new job markets in these depressed times. Hemp is so
useful/environmental.Considering the facts, how can continued Fed Prohibition of
marijuana be justified?

Why won't you call an impartial public inquiry into the Afghan detainee affair?

When will Canada take a leadership role in the world when it comes to the environment? I am sick and tired of the Prime Minister taking a supporting role on such an important issue affecting our lives. Stop using the economy to ignore such a pressing issue. Time is no longer on our side when it comes to this issue. Please act now!

I often hear of you dirty playbook tricks , can you share them with the rest of us to use !Help us all learn to be Cons !

Why bother? Harper prorogued parliament so he wouldn't have to listen to anyone else. What makes you think he's going to listen now?

Legalize marijuana.

Methinks Mr Soudas better get himself a coupla sockpuppets up there pretty damn quick or Steve will be spending next Tuesday night talking about legalizing weed, the crap quality of Soudas' vid, and um, testicals.

h/t Kady, who has a couple of questions of her own about the appropriateness of Google gifting free Youtube facetime to Steve while registered as a federal lobby group.

Tuesday Night and we're off : Harper's Big Live Late Pretaped Youtube Debut

Who ya gonna call?

THE TIMES OF LONDON has a very disturbing report by Richard Owen in Rome:

Chief exorcist

Father Gabriele Amorth

says Devil is in the Vatican

Hey — it deserves big and bold.

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

. . .

Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me."

Boogityboogity. 

Six Degrees of . . . .

Quick!

What do george w.bush, stephen harper and tiger woods have in common?


The Universe indeed works in mysterious ways . . . .

A Bridge Too Far . . .

MICHAEL YON is an American journalist who spends his time in-country, with the troops in Afghanistan. I have posted some of his fine pictures here, in the recent past. Well, on Monday, March 1st, the jihaddis set off a car bomb on the Tarnak River Bridge. This bridge is a major conduit of supplies for the coalition efforts, and the car bomb caused enough damage that the bridge was put out of commission.

Yon inquired as to who was responsible, and this is where the shirking began: initially it appeared that bridge security was a Canadian responsibility, then it appeared that nobody was responsible. The bridge bomb had killed an American soldier, and Yon, an American, started a brouhaha when he posted critical comments on Facebook.

The Canwest Vancouver Sun media sprang to our defence in a general rebuttal, concluding with this gem:

Canadian Forces Lt.-Col. Danny Fortin: "But the Americans answer to a Canadian who answers to a British major-general who in turn answers to an American. This is coalition warfare at its best." 

To his credit, Yon realized he may have made a mistake:

In apology to BG Menard, I should not have demanded that he be fired so early in the process, despite that my assertion that he was responsible has proven true. I should never have mentioned hockey, as that created room for a diversion from the central importance.  Brigadier General Menard clearly was not the only responsible party for this strategic bridge that his soldiers depend upon. To single out BG Menard was a mistake, despite that he was ultimately responsible for the ANP.

Anyway, check out his article, "The Bridge" and other pages on his site. Below, is a picture of a wounded Canadian soldier, Danny, on his second tour of Afghanistan being medevac'd to Germany.

U.S. Air Force Nurse, Lucy Lehker, comforts
an 'unknown' Canadian soldier after he
was badly wounded in Afghanistan.

Toxin

A thought occurred to me when writing my last post.

Harper used the first prorogue to avoid the prospect of losing power to an Opposition coalition. He went to the wall, declared treason and a unity crisis over a very legitimate and legal action in our parliamentary system. When the system did something he didn't like, he circumvented it and ran to the GG.

By challenging the supremacy of parliament through withholding documents and appointing a patsy judge to investigate it, Harper is using the Afghan detainee abuse scandal to further challenge the legitimacy of parliament and therefore the integrity of our system of government. This is what the man does when he faces challenges to his position. He takes the issue to the edge and tests the system. So far he's winning because the actors in the system fold like so many Chamberlains.

Harper is using a dark and brooding scandal to consolidate power by using it as another system test. The mission rot in Afghanistan could help Harper destroy our parliamentary legitimacy by giving him another means through which to call a bluff on Canada's democratic and legal legitimacy.

If the Chamberlains here do not eventually find September 1939, Canada will have its own insurgency. Because we'll need it.

Ill-equipped

They're springing leaks fast and furious now. An anonymous government official outlines three scenarios the Liberal feared in 2005 regarding Afghanistan detainees.

He said the Liberal government looked at three options as it considered moving Canadian troops to the embattled Kandahar province from the relative stability of Kabul:

• A "take and keep," which the official said raised fears of problems such as those the U.S. encountered with its control of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or its detention of terrorism suspects at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• Handing off detainees to U.S. forces for transfer to U.S. facilities like Guantanamo, which had already led to trouble for a previous Liberal defence minister, Art Eggleton.
• Working with Afghans and the local system in place at the time.

"Take and keep" refers to Canadian administration of our own prisoners. The problem with this measure, as Somalia, Vietnam (French and US wars), the ongoing Iraq occupation, Rhodesia, Belgians and French in various parts of Africa, and others testify, is that Western armed forces, their political masters, and much of their voting public, are culturally an cognitively ill-equipped to humanely cope with easily 'othered' populations. During the Somalia affair, Maj. Antony Seward summed it up in reference to Canadian soldiers' less than grateful reception by the indigenous Somalis.

"It was hard for anybody from that battlegroup, from the lieutenant-colonel down to the trooper, to accept the fact that we were here...we were there on a voluntary basis to do a difficult mission and then be treated that way. But I think that the individual soldier, he was dealing with for what for him was a significant opposition of values." (quoted in S. Razack, "Dark threats and White Knights", p. 92)

It becomes axiomatic that the dichotomy between western soldier and indigenous person, especially during an insurgency, will eventually lead to gross abuses. This does not mean armies are malicious, or the relative altrusism guiding the advocates of the mission is untrustworthy, it simply means that given enough time and lack of structure, foul things will happen which will undermine the mission and it's supporters. This is almost unavoidable. Even for Canadians (contrary to our untested national mythology).

Structure is important. In the first Gulf war, Canadians ran PoW camps for the British. This was a highly structured war, of very short duration, where the enemy was visible, involving what were essentially NATO armies fresh out of the Cold War facing a similarly organised though inferior array of forces. PoWs were eventually released and sent home when the war was over. Conditions were such that it was quite easy to apply the Geneva Conventions regarding PoWs because the war fit the Conventions hand in glove.

There is no structure in Afghanistan. After overthrowing the Taliban government for the Northern Alliance, the insurgency started. It became nearly impossible to tell neutral (I would think true friends there are few) from foe, and captured insurgents did not easily fit the Western imagination of what a PoW should look like. Nor was and is the governance of the occupation and fighting able to clearly determine what the captives are legally speaking, and thus how to treat them. For whatever reason, the organisers of the war seem have decided that the only ruleset we had could be ignored and replaced with...nothing. Without clear guidance and the structure of formal conflict or the imposition of such on the informal nature of Afghanistan, the issue of what we were doing with prisoners easily became muddled. We we're asking for scandal.

Given that, the Liberal's fear of establishing our own prison facilities may well have been born out. Abu Ghraib probably gave a good many policymakers shivering reminders of Somalia regarding Afghan prisoners. I can't say I blame them for wanting to avoid a repeat. Keep the prisoners away from the troops, don't send them to the Bush Americans if we can help it (bad bad), give them to the locals, so if anything goes wrong, it's not our problem.

How Pontius of them.

None of this has nothing to do with not/supporting the troops, left-right party politics, or whatever liberal interventionist do-gooding philosophy, global strategic interests, or bloody-minded warporning that rests behind certain peoples' enthusiasm for the mission. It has everything to do with examining the situation objectively, and being able to acknowledge that any state, government, or armed forces that has found itself in a similar war have very similar experiences, none of them good. And that we are no different. We are not culturally equipped to complete the task, full stop. Admit that, and leaving becomes easy.

It's the fucking aftermath that sucks.

Because that's what they do...

This I believe. I'm not surprized in the slightest. It will underscore the point made earlier by many that the Chief of Defence Staff of the day was aware that the prisoner transfer agreement he had entered into was, shall we say, seriously flawed.

It will also cause the monosynaptic whipheads at the Blogging Tories to start squawking, "The Liberals did it, too!" Which is non sequitur to the current issue facing the Harperites.

This is closer to the issue. The Harperites developing a plan, not to correct the situation on the ground and guarantee that government direction did not place troops and diplomats in a condition which might violate international law, but to develop a single story and "stick to it".

That's not to say that a new MOU hadn't been signed by then. It had been. Just days before, in fact. So, you might ask, how long some group of frat-boys spent putting together a power point presentation intended for a cabinet meeting where they would all agree on a single velocity of spin?

But, I think there is a larger point being missed. At some stage a decision was made and direction issued that any prisoners or detainees taken in the field by Canadians were "technically" not in Canadian custody because patrols were accompanied by at least one member of the Afghan National Army or the Afghan NDS. Captives were "technically" the responsibility of the Afghans present and never "technically" passed through Canadian points of responsibility. Thus, it was Afghans turning captives over to Afghans, despite Canadian presence, and there was no requirement to monitor the detainee - at all.

I'm sure some genius will eventually work out the harm and foul of Canadians being ordered not to involve themselves, even if a capture was the result of a Canadian action. Eventually.

Weaselry

HELLACIOUS HELENA'S HUBBY has beat the rap! The egregious Rahim Jaffer is the mysterious beneficiary of a get-out-of-jail-free card issued by some weasel.

According to the G&M:

He was initially charged with driving while having more than 80 milligrams in one hundred millilitres of blood, speeding and possession of cocaine.

The former MP was sentenced to a $500 fine. He had already agreed to make a $500 charitable donation to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“I'm sorry. I know this was a serious matter,” Mr. Jaffer said afterward outside the court. “I know I should have been more careful and I took full responsibility for my careless driving.”

So, for one of the Harper elite, a coke possession charge, a +.08 impaired charge and a 43kph over-limit speeding offence all resolves to "careless driving"?

Time to show Stevie how much we care about "careless". Grrrrrrr.

Happy International Women's Day

Meet Dr Sima Samar, MD

-Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission,

-UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, and

-founder of the Shuhada organization which runs hospitals, schools and health clinics for girls and women all over Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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After obtaining a degree in medicine in 1982 from Kabul University, Samar was forced to flee to the countryside with her young son after the arrest of her husband.

The Telegraph :

"She began attempting to treat patients against a background of extreme poverty, war, and harassment by the Taliban, who have virtually criminalised the delivery of reproductive health services to women and girls. In an article for the New England Journal of Medicine she describes having “to walk or travel on horseback or by donkey for three or four hours in each direction” to get to a patient, often finding that she had died before she got there.

In her long, but ultimately triumphant career, she has been forced to smuggle birth control supplies under her clothing; she has endured death threats and been jailed; her hospitals have been bombed and looted by Taliban, and her medical director jailed for a year without charges; she was appointed to the Karzai government’s legislature then forced to resign when she was made comments that were critical of sharia law in an interview with foreign [Canadian] journalist."

Despite attacks on her reputation from Afghan politicians - in December she was accused of using her Shuhada organization as a front for running brothels - Dr. Samar was widely expected in Afghanistan to win last year's Nobel Peace Prize, the one that ultimately went to some guy who was nominated 12 days into his new job. .

A woman, as noted in the Telegraph article above, with human rights "street creds", she was also on the board of directors of the beleaguered Rights & Democracy Canada from 2007 until her resignation in January 2010.

Today in the Ottawa Citizen she speaks out : Why I resigned from Rights & Democracy

on how "Canada's leading international human rights agency has been destroyed" by the new board members whose views have been so amply represented in the pages of the National Post recently while the staff at R&D have been muzzled. It's very interesting to finally read an insider's opposing account, and one that is not primarily informed by editorials at the rightwing Israeli NGO Monitor. Samar concludes :

"Sadly, this is not the glorious image of the tolerant and fair Canada that inspires us in Afghanistan. This is a denial of rights and democracy, and the destruction of a great Canadian institution."

A PSA for Wimm'sDay :

Antigone has launched a feminist social networking site : Antigone Connect

"As we approach Canada’s 150th Anniversary, we are all aware that there is a great deal more to be done in Canada to ensure women’s equality. More women in politics and managerial positions, accessible child care, changes to the Indian Act, equal pay, and equal pensions are just a few of the things that the Royal Commission on the Status of Women identified as necessary for equality nearly fifty years ago."

Go, Antigone! (h/t HollyStick)

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Quote for the day

Reading CC today reminded me of something else I'd recently read:

Fanatics don't laugh at themselves; laughter is by definition heretical, unless used cruelly, turned outwards against an opponent or enemy. Bigots can't laugh. True believers don't laugh. Their idea of laughter is a satirical cartoon pillorying an opposition person or idea. Tyrants and oppressors don't laugh at themselves, and don't tolerate laughter at themselves.

Laughter is a very powerful thing, and only the civilized, the liberated, the free person can laugh at herself, himself.

- Doris Lessing, from "Prisons We Choose to Live Inside" (p. 46), print edition of the 1986 CBC Massey Lectures

...might have some more to say on this later.

Edification

DRIBBLEGLASS IS CHEERFULLY irreverent. They have a fine selection of faux billboards for your amusement. Stevie probably wouldn't like it.

My Canada does not include war criminals

In light of this, I think that it is undeniable that there must be a fully public, non-partisan inquest, preferrably by a provincial coroner or similar authority that is more than arm's length away from the federal government. From the CBC:

Federal government documents on Afghan detainees suggest that Canadian officials intended some prisoners to be tortured in order to gather intelligence, according to a legal expert.

If the allegation is true, such actions would constitute a war crime, said University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, who has been digging deep into the issue and told CBC News he has seen uncensored versions of government documents released last year.

If the allegation that Afghan prisoners were purposely sent to be tortured turns out to be true, I  want people sent to jail. And by jail I don't mean country club Conrad Black minimum security jail, either. I want to see them walking the yard at Millhaven. And by people I mean every single person in the chain of command that approved or did not act to stop this - right up to the Cabinet level, including the Prime Minister. If it happened under the Liberals and Paul Martin knew about it, fine, jail his retired ass, too. This is not about politics or the party currently in power. This about Canada upholding basic human rights. We may have gotten a lot of things related to human rights wrong in the past - from residential schools to head taxes to incarcerating the Japanese during World War Two - whichever party is in power, but we have never tolerated outright evil like this. This must be investigated, fully and completely and in the full light of day, with nothing redacted or left unexamined to "protect operational security" or any other bullshit reason the people involved want to try to cite to save their asses. My Canada does not include torture.

Update: the Mound of Sound has more here, here and here

MoS gives Frank Iacobucci a map to the minefield

You have to read this.

The blazing fury of a reseated parliament...

Given the extended and expensive time given to stolen from taxpayers by the Harper Party to "recalibrate" themselves you might have expected every moment spent in Parliament to simply drip with drama. Private members' bills might have a tough time surviving given the need to reintroduce a huge amount of the Harper agenda killed by proroguing and running for the nearest safe corner.

Yet, at 1:35 PM this past Friday Harper Party member and MP for Stormont-Glengarry-Dundas, Guy Lauzon, introduced a motion regarding the Canadian Navy. A private member's bill.

Ships? Increased operations? Better rotation for overstretched crews?

You wish. (At least if you're in the Navy.)

Lauzon had something else on his mind. Uniforms; naval uniforms; naval officers' uniforms; specifically that little loop on the braid of our rank insignia we used to call, "Elliot's Eye".

I am very honoured to speak in the House today to my private member's motion, Motion No. 459, which would introduce the executive curl on the navy uniforms.

40 years after it was removed from the braid, the Conservative "recalibrated" government of Steve Harper, took valuable time in the House to have a motion passed which would have Elliot's Eye re-established on Canadian naval officers' uniforms.

Just don't be in the navy and ask the Conservatives for a new ship, even if they promised it in the past. And the featherweight waste of time didn't go unnoticed.

(Robert Oliphant, Don Valley West) I have some concerns, however. At some point, the hon. member might want to comment on why, with all the issues in Cornwall and the surrounding area, this one has grabbed his attention when that particular community is facing some very significant economic, tourism and other development issues that could the subject of a very serious members' business procedure. I say that because I am somewhat jealous of the hon. member actually getting precedence to be able to present a piece of business. It is rare, because members can often wait six, eight or ten years to have a bill or a motion come to full debate.

The issues in Cornwall and the surrounding area are significant. I am wondering why the member did not take on the issue of contraband cigarettes, perhaps, and the effect they are having on children and youth across the country and very directly in his community on relations with first nations communities. That is of concern to me. Also, I wonder whether or not he had thought about asking his government to appoint a mediator to work on the longstanding dispute between the Canada Border Services Agency and the Akwesasne Nation. Perhaps it is time that the member steps up to the plate to work for his constituents on that very important issue of the reputation of his community, which has been tarnished over these last several months.

The motion the member has presented is rather weak tea. It simply requests that the government consider reinstating a piece of embroidery on a uniform, which is not to denigrate whatsoever the support we give to our troops and our veterans, which is unanimous in this caucus. What we are pushing for, instead, is for the hon. member to address the other important economic social and cultural issues that he has responsibility to stand up and talk about in the House.

This bunch of hillbillies just keeps getting better, don't they? Words in a song; braid on a uniform. I can hardly wait for recipe swapping hour.

While we're pretending that the only thing important enough to address in Parliament is buttons and bows on the uniforms of our sailors, Lauzon might be taken to task for his failure to acknowledge the lower deck of the senior service.

It's all well and good to serve the Harper Party purposes by introducing ( and having carried) a motion which gives the Naval Officers' Association of Canada a reason for a wet dream, but what about the folks who do all the heavy lifting? If we're going to create a distinctive separation of our naval officers from their army and air force kinfolk then it is only courtesy that it should extend to the messdecks. In that regard, I expect to see another motion changing the rank badges of the real troops.

Petty Officer 1st Class (equivalent to senior Warrant Officer)
Petty Officer 2nd Class (equivalent to senior Sergeant)
Leading Hand (equivalent to Master Corporal/Corporal)

While we're at it, why don't we reintroduce good conduct badges? Nothing like confusing everybody and getting downright British about it. Let's face it the average Canadian doesn't know whether their punched, bored or blown out with a 4.7 inch high-elevation gun.

Yes, for those who know, I've left out CPO 2nd Class and CPO 1st Class because honestly, every time I wiped my nose with my sleeve, those extra buttons always gave me a nose-bleed.

Same as it ever was . . .

J.B.S. HALDANE once observed, "My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose". It seems like it's always been that way, as a site called Black and WTF displays in wonderful images from yesteryear.

WWW: World-Wide Warfare

FOREIGN POLICY'S WEB SITE has a photo gallery of 33 current conflicts, called "Planet War", compiled by Kayvan Farzaneh, Andrew Swift and Peter Williams, and taken by some very brave photographers. Worthy of your attention.

From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most.

The national anthem - Thou Dustiness command

Friday Update : After 68 days of careful deliberation and a mere 48 hours after its inclusion in the throne speech, "thou dustiness" gets binned, having successfully served its purpose of providing an amusing distraction from the other dust collecters in the throne speech.



According to this poll at CBC, most do not think two months off were required to consider recalibrating the gender neutrality of the national anthem :

O Canada
Our home and native land
True patriot love
Thou Dustiness command

"Thou Dustiness" is doubtless responsible for the idea of a National Monument to the Victims of Communism in the throne speech, in addition of course to the dust bunnies under your bed.

Neat Stuff

JAMES LILEKS' WEB SITE IS A DELIGHT. He's a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and his site's been around since 1996 or so. His site is a fine look at Americana of yesteryear. One section is called "COFFEE & CHROME restaurants from the days before the chains". Another section is "the american motel", with postcards from the 50's and 60's. And there's a section devoted to matchbook covers, the "Matchbook Museum". Plus other great stuff, presented for your amusement, as Parliament is about to get crunchy.