Canada Day 2009 : 100 Reasons to Not Celebrate |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
5398 readings
Peace News |
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 07:27 |
Canada Day 2009 : 100 Reasons to Not Celebrate
PEJ News - Joan Russow,Global Compliance Research Project - No amount of gun salutes, military fly-overs, fire works, with song, music and dance, and flag waving can eclipse what has been really happening in Canada. No amount of nice sounding rhetoric such as in the minority government’s 2007 Speech from the Throne, comparing “Canada to the guiding light of the North Star”, can prevent Canada from now being perceived as an international pariah of corporatism and militarism. No painting of the Maple Leaf on the C-17 planes of Canada One, will prevent Canada from being ready to go anywhere, any place and at any time at the behest of the US policy of preventive/pre-emptive aggression.
(2) Canada had an election in October 2008 when Prime Minister, Harper had stepped down. At that time Prime Minister Harper was being investigated, by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee, for a fraudulent in-and out scheme during the 2006 election. The Chief Electoral officer had testified before the Committee that the 2006 Conservative scheme was in violation of the Elections Act. When the Governor General failed to call upon the other Opposition Parties. Representing at that time 66 percent of seats, form a government, an election was called, and the Parliamentary Ethics Committee was disbanded..
(3) Canada ended up with a new minority government led by Harper, who, when faced with a non-confidence vote, in December 2008, went to the Governor General and requested the preroging of Parliament; The Governor General supported Harper’s request even though there was a coalition of Opposition Parties ready to govern.
(2) Canada has a minority government acting as a majority government, through its disregarding majority votes, and through its declaring of motions as non-confidence motions. Under the Canadian Constitution, an international agreement can be ignored, adopted, signed, or ratified simply by the agreement of the Prime Minister and Cabinet: this means, that even though the three opposition parties representing two thirds of the electorate are opposed to the government’s position, the minority government can bind Canada, internationally. ( ) Canada has a flawed electoral system: the first past the post system rather than some form of proportional representation. Governments can be elected with as little as 33% support from the electorate. Often opposition parties refrain from bringing down the government because of the fear, under the current electoral system, of the repercussions of the splitting of the vote. Often citizens vote for the party they want less to prevent the party they want least from being elected. The current system discriminates against women and minorities. (see Joan Russow v The Attorney General of Canada, The Chief Electoral ... A Charter Challenge to Canada's Electoral System", www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/testcase/ -
(4) Canada has less than 27% of women elected to the Parliament. In a publication, prepared under the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the various states were listed according to the percentage of women elected to the national legislatures; the list stopped at 27% thus Canada was not included on the list.
( ) Canada has been involved with the intervention in Haiti
(9) Canada has continued to be a member of NATO, with its belligerent, and offensive operation, “Bomb, Blast and Bribe” Operation in Afghanistan.
. And on CBC, June 30, an RCMP officer who was training Afghani soldiers in Afghanistan, demonstrated his pedagogic skill, by shouting ; “Wake up and Turn your Brains On”.
( ) Canada has not opposed Article IV of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)- this article establishes the inalienable right of all states to the “peaceful” use of civil nuclear energy.
Canada continues to have an international armament Exhibition in Ottawa, and pepper sprays protesters in the area around the Exhibition DEMONSTRATING DISDAIN FOR THE RULE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (27) Canada has demonstrated disdain for the international rule of law, by refusing to accept the jurisdiction or decision of the International Court of Justice. (28) Canada has extended "human security" to mean "humanitarian intervention" and "Responsibility to protect" and created the licence to intervene militarily in the name of humanitarian intervention. (29) Canada, through transferring prisoners in Afghanistan, has violated the Convention against Torture. (30) Canada has violated the Geneva conventions on the treatment of civilians, and international human rights and humanitarian law during the invasion and occupation of sovereign states. (31) Canada has signed and ratified international conventions, treaties and covenants but has failed to enact the necessary statutory legislation to ensure compliance. [Even though in 1982, Canada sent a Communiqué internationally indicating that when Canada signs an agreement it ensures that the necessary legislation is in place, and in the event that there is a discrepancy, Canada will enact implementing legislation. TRUMPING CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (32) Canada has obsequiously drafted the Canadian model of “homeland security act” in the drafting and enforcing of the "anti-terrorist Act" which has contributed to racial profiling. (33) Canada has violated the civil and political rights of its citizens by instituting a copy- cat no-fly list, and by relying on FBI lists of Activists to prevent their entry into Canada. (34) Canada has also embarked upon caving in to US paranoia by contributing to a North American Fortress and has agreed to develop, enforce intrusive identity measures such as biometrics, and as increased wire tapping. (35) Canada has recently undertaken in Kelowna a pilot project of Body Scanning.- virtual stripping” through a device that penetrates clothes. (36) Canada has permitted a pilot project for the “virtual stripping” of citizens through a device that penetrates through clothes. (37) Canada, has used the RCMP, as agent provocateurs, to target activists opposed to government policies at conferences, such as APEC, and the SPP, (38 ) Canada has placed citizens, engaged in lawful advocacy, on RCMP Threat Assessment lists. (39) Canada has equated lawful advocacy with criminal acts in violation of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act. (40) Canada has exchanged “caveats down”, “intelligence” information with the US; this misinformation has led to “rendering” of citizens to states which permit torture (41) Canada has failed to condemn to redefinition, by the US, of what constitutes torture. (42) Canada has been implicated in intruding and intervening, through questionable institutes, in the electoral process in sovereign states. ![]() PRATICISING ANTI-ENVIRONMENTALISM (43) Canada has condemned and prosecuted citizens for attempting to prevent irreparable harm to the environment and for calling upon governments and the courts to respect the rule of law.. Since the arrests in Clayoquot Sound and subsequent arrests of citizens protesting the destruction of the forests, concerned citizens have been asking ”Who are the real criminals?’ The Court must end designating , as criminals, those who strive to respect international obligations, and begin charging the corporations who continuously disregard the rule of law, and the long-standing obligations towards the Environment. (44) Canada has for years ignored the warnings of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate change, and disregarded its obligations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change and refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. (45) Canada, by advocating, 2006 rather than 1990 at the base line, at the International Conferences on Climate Change, has stalled international resolve to address the issue of climate change . (46) Canada has even ignored the serious short term and long term consequences of nuclear energy and advocated that civil nuclear energy is the solution to climate change. ![]() (47) Canada has promoted two questionable “solutions” to climate change: Nuclear and biofuel, and ignored the principles that a “solution” should never be equally bad or worse than the problem it is intended to solve.Canada continued to support this position at the 2009, Commission on Sustainable Development. (48) Canada has failed to call for states to release information related to the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of all weapons systems, military operations and interventions, military exercises, weapons testing, military aviation, environmental warfare, troop transfer, waste generation, reconstruction after acts of violent interventions etc. (49) Canada has either not been invited or refused to participate in the German government initiative to establish an International Renewal Energy Agency (IRENA). the ”preparatory conference for the foundation of the international renewable energy agency (IRENA)” took place in German on April –09 –11, 2008, there were 170 participants from 60 countries attended and discussed the possible objectives, activities, organisation and finance of IRENA. Canada was not one of them. (50) Canada has continued to transfer to other states, substances and activities that are harmful to human health or to the environment and to justify this transfer through the notion of "informed consent"; (51) Canada collaborated with the US in the gutting and discarding of the precautionary principle which reads where there is a threat to human health or the environment, the lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent the threat. (52) Canada has continued to the destroy biodiversity not only in Canada but even in the United States, through the transboundary impact on the Canadian company, Cominco. (53) Canada has instituted major environmental awards, such as the Canadian Environmental Award, and permitted major polluters, such as Shell and Nexen to sponsor the event, and thus has condoned “green wash”. UNDERMINING FOOD SECURITY AND WATER AS A PUBLIC GOOD (54) Canada continues to be a major producer, and promoter of genetically engineered foods and crops which has led to a deterioration of the food supply, and of heritage seeds. (55) Canada also has used the WTO to undermine European opposition to genetically engineered foods and crops. (56) Canada has participated in the export of genetically engineered corn into Mexico when, under NAFTA on January 1, 2008, the Mexican border was opened to genetically engineered corn. (57) Canada has supported corporate demands for an acceptance of a high percentage of “adventitious” material in containers previously used for the transport of Living Modified Organisms. (58) Canada voted against the declaration of Water as a Human Right, at the reunion of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. (59) Canada has increasingly resorted to “public private partnerships” ( 3 Ps) to fund and operate the commons in areas of “drinking water and sewage” (60) Canada has permitted the salmon Aquaculture, which has impacted on wild salmon. (61) Canada has used the “extraterritoriality” principle to justify environmentally destructive mining practices in many parts of the world. (62) Canada, through the Security and Prosperity Partnership, NAFTA, TILMA, has been harmonizing standards leading to the lowest common denominator, and has been relaxing regulations. EVADING HUMAN RIGHTS Social and Cultural Rights (63) Canada has failed to incorporate provisions from the International Covenant of Social, Economic and Cultural Rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (64) Canada has failed to implement into statutory legislation the guarantees under the Covenant of Social, Economic and Cultural Rights to the right to food and the right to housing, both vital determinants of citizen’s health. (65) Canada has failed to act on the international commitment to transfer .7% of the GDP for overseas aid. (66) Canada has failed to seriously advance the cancellation of third world debt. (67) Canada has reduced funds for universities, causing universities and researchers to grovel for corporate and defence funding. (68) Canada has condoned the corporate funding of higher education and the corporate direction of research. (69) Canada, through the appointment of general Rick Hillier, former Canadian Chief of Defence staff, as Chancellor of Memorial university; reflects the reifying of the “inBEDedness” of the military in academia, and of the disconcerting revolving academic/military door. (70) Canada is moving progressively away from its national policy of universal accessible, non-two tier, not for profit health care system. (71) Canada has, through the election of Dr Brian Day, as President of the Canadian Medical Association could be moving more towards condoning private facilities: In a November Address to the Canadian Medical Association stated the following: “Frustrations with wait lists led me, in 1995, to found the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver - the first private facility of its type in Canada”. Labour Rights (72) Canada, has failed to sign and ratify most of the International Labour Conventions (ILO). (58) Canada has failed to institute a Fair and just transition program for workers to move away from activities that are harmful to the environment and to human health.. Since the emergence of concern about the environment in the 1970s, many union members anticipated that there would be the phasing out of industries for environmental reasons, and they began advancing the principle of fair and just transition. Indigenous Rights and Rights of Migrant Workers (73) Canada, on September 13, 2007, failed to adopt the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Canada was one of only four states that refused to adopt the declaration; subsequently with the change in government in Australia, Canada is now one of three states that did not adopt the Declaration. (74) Canada cannot be absolved from the continued exploitation of aboriginal by apologizing, though important, to the First Nations peoples of Canada, (75) Canada has allowed the situation of indigenous peoples in Canada to deteriorate to such an extent that first Nations are often desperate enough to enter into agreements with industries that exploit resources of the land in a way that is destructive to the environment and culturally inappropriate. (76) Canada has refused to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families. FLAUNTING CORPORATISM (77) Canada has continued to promulgate globalization, deregulation and privatization through its support for trade agreements, such as the WTO/FTAA/NAFTA, SPP. (78) Canada has advocated and supported the IMF’s structural adjustment program which has resulted in serious deterioration of social services and exploitation of the resources of vulnerable peoples around the world. (79) Canada has entered into the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), with the US and Mexico, which will contribute to the increased violation of international peremptory norms, and lead to the relaxing of health and environmental standards through “harmonization of standards”. (80) Canada has been increasingly willing to provide “reliable energy” to the US regardless of health or environmental consequences. (81) Canada has ignored even the NAFTA provision to not relax environmental standards to attract industry. (82) Canada has, on the other hand, always relied on what has been described as the “proportionality” principle which it claims would require, regardless of the environmental consequences to continue to export the same proportion of energy. (83) Canada, in its 1993 Environmental Assessment of NAFTA, claimed that Canada’s international environmental obligations would take precedence over NAFTA; yet Canada has not used the Convention on Biological Diversity which Canada has signed and ratified, to counter any corporate claims against Canada. (84) Canada has increasingly succumbed to US corporate take-overs of Canadian industry. (85) Canada has promoted the privatization of public services such as water, and health care. (86) Canada has advocated corporate voluntary compliance rather than instituting Mandatory International Ethical Normative (MIEN) standards and enforceable regulations to drive industry to conform to international law (87) Canada has failed to revoke licences of corporations that have violated human rights, destroyed the environment, contributed to war and conflict, and denied social justice. (88) Canada has condoned and actively facilitated corporations benefiting and profiting from war. (89) Canada is willing to sacrifice the environment, in the oil sands, to satisfy US energy wants and is indirectly contributing to US military production. (90) Canada has engaged in flawed consultation process in the oil sands, and conveyed an “over the top” rhetorical “vision” statement: Our vision for oil sands development leads to a future for Alberta that: •Honours the rights of First Nations and Métis •Provides a high quality of life •Ensures a healthy environment •Maximizes value-added in Alberta •Builds healthy communities •Sees Alberta benefit from the oil economy and lead in the post-oil economy •Sees Alberta as a world leader in education, technology and a skilled workforce •Provides high quality infrastructure and services for all Albertans •Demonstrates leadership through world class governance (agreed to by the committee of the consultation process) (91) Canada has directly or indirectly subsidized companies that have developed weapons of mass destruction, that have violated human rights, that have denied social justice, that have exploited workers, that have destroyed the environment. etc |
Last Updated on Monday, 27 July 2015 11:49 |