The NDP is refusing to heed a call from 200 well-known musicians, academics, trade unionists and party members to withdraw from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group (CIIG). To justify its decision the party says it is also represented on the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group (CPPFG). In response to the open letter signed by Roger Waters, Maher... Continue Reading →
Understanding the ways Canada underdevelops Africa
The question gets asked often: How can Africa be so poor when it receives so much aid? The answer is simple. The world economic system sucks more out of the continent than it puts in. And tax evasion by Canadian firms plays a significant role in this impoverishment. The May report, Honest Accounts 2017: How... Continue Reading →
Canada a settler state helping pull imperial strings, not a colony
Colony or settler state? Recently foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland dismissed concerns that Canada was seeking "regime change" in Venezuela by saying "Canada has never been an imperialist power. It's even almost funny to say that phrase: we've been the colony." As I detailed in an initial response, Ottawa has passively or actively supported numerous U.S.-backed military coups against progressive... Continue Reading →
Canadian imperialism not amusing to its victims, Ms. Freeland
It may walk and quack like a regime-change-promoting duck, but Ottawa's unilateral sanctions and support for Venezuela's opposition is actually just a cuddly Canadian beaver, says Chrystia Freeland. "Canada has never been an imperialist power. It's even almost funny to say that phrase: we've been the colony," said the journalist-turned-politician after a Toronto meeting of foreign ministers opposed to the Venezuelan government.... Continue Reading →
Statistics, damn lies and the truth about Rwanda genocide
The real Rwanda genocide story has no Canadian heroes. Canadian commentators often claim more Tutsi were killed in the genocide than lived in Rwanda. Since it aligns with Washington, London and Kigali's interests, as well as liberal nationalist Canadian ideology, the statistical inflation passes with little comment. A Tyee story last month described the "slaughter... Continue Reading →
Remembering the truth about Lester Pearson
Many monuments, memorials and names of institutions across Canada celebrate our colonial and racist past. Calls for renaming buildings or pulling down statues are symbolic ways of reinterpreting that history, acknowledging mistakes and small steps towards reconciling with the victims of this country's policies. At its heart this process is about searching for the truth,... Continue Reading →
Canada’s neoliberal policies enable exploitation in Zambia
While few Canadians could find Zambia on a map, the Great White North has significant influence over the southern African nation. A big beneficiary of internationally sponsored neoliberal reforms, a Vancouver firm is the largest foreign investor in the landlocked country of 16 million. First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has been embroiled in various ecological, labour... Continue Reading →
Aid and exploitation: Canada in Congo
Imagine if the media only reported the good news that governments and corporations wanted you to see, hear and read about. Unfortunately, that is not far from the reality of reporting about Canada's role internationally. The dominant media almost exclusively covers stories that portray this country positively while ignoring or downplaying information that contradicts this... Continue Reading →
Canadian, US complaints about Russian election meddling hypocritical
If a guy does something bad to someone else, but then complains later when another person does that same thing to him, what do we say? Stop being a hypocrite. Either you change direction or you got what you deserved. Does the same moral logic apply to countries? Purported Russian meddling in U.S., French and other... Continue Reading →
Banro’s quest for Congo gold yields deaths, kidnapping
When one Canadian mining company goes, violence seems to follow. Last week a police officer and soldier were killed at a Banro Corporation-run mine in the east of the Congo. One "assailant" was also killed at the Toronto-based company's Namoya mine. In February three police were killed at another Banro mine about 200km to the... Continue Reading →
Trudeau confuses anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism
Canada’s Prime Minister would like us to believe that the ideology that shaped Israel is designed to fight anti-Jewish prejudice. But, even when anti-Semitism was a significant political force in Canada, Zionism largely represented a chauvinistic, colonialist way of thinking. On Israel Independence Day earlier this month Justin Trudeau delivered a speech by video to... Continue Reading →
Canada no friend of Haiti or rest of Caribbean
Can cute Canadian Caribbean dreams about enchanted islands come true? Or is reality more complicated and Canada a far less benign actor than we imagine ourselves to be? In a recent Boston Globe opinion titled “Haiti should relinquish its sovereignty”, Boston College professor Richard Albert writes, “the new Haitian Constitution should do something virtually unprecedented:... Continue Reading →
Media ignores Canada’s role in suppressing Palestinian protests
The Canadian media has mostly ignored recent Palestinian efforts to non-violently disrupt a half-century old occupation. They've barely reported on a prisoners' hunger strike and associated solidarity protests, let alone Canada's effort to suppress popular protests in the West Bank. Around 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have been on hunger strike since April 17. In the... Continue Reading →
Canada should apologize for its role in colonizing Palestine
The year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a crass expression of colonial thought that Canada helped realize. Just before capturing Jerusalem in late 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour proclaimed support for a Jewish homeland on land occupied mostly by Muslim and Christian Palestinians. In a letter to Walter Rothschild and... Continue Reading →
Tax subsidized schools rally children to glorify Israel colonialism
On Tuesday thousands will gather to celebrate the most aggressive ongoing European settler colonialism. Organizers of Montréal’s annual Israel Day rally claim it is the largest event of its kind in the country. A significant proportion of the crowd will come from the city’s 15 Jewish day schools, which receive most of their funds from... Continue Reading →
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