test blog #10

If you are a Vietnam War resister who came to Canada, you may be interested in this website the War Resisters Support Campaign is building: Let Them Stay . Whether you are a Canadian citizen still living in Canada, or you returned to the US - whether you were a deserter, a draft resister, or simply an outraged USian - if you'd like to be part of this effort, you are welcome to join. Click " add my name ", fill out the form, and someone will contact you about getting your info up on the site. If you know any Vietnam-era resisters, perhaps you will share the link with them. Thanks.

Yesterday's protest was noticed. From the Toronto Sun : New Canucks see protest Immigration minister Jason Kenney was dogged by a dozen noisy protesters yesterday as he presided over a formal swearing-in ceremony of 98 new Canadians. Some of the new Canucks took photos of the sign-waving War Resisters Support Campaign, whose members want Kenney to stop the removal of draft dodgers to the U.S. Kenney was in four areas of the GTA yesterday, handing out cash totalling $1.9 million to seven community agencies that provide resettlement services in 14 public libraries. Protesters placed their placards against the windows of a Mississauga immigration office as Kenney spoke to new Canadians inside. [ More here. ]

Q: When is a pullout not a pullout? A: When 50,000 troops and more than 100,000 mercenaries are left behind. The war may (or may not) end, but the occupation continues.

I've started a Fundable campaign for war resister legal defense. We have until March 25 to raise $2500 or more. Go here to read more , and please give if you can. A pledge can be as little as $10, and every bit helps. You can also help make this happen by posting the link wherever you can: your blog, Facebook page, email contacts. If you belong to a peace and justice organization, please consider sending this to your mailing list. Fundable faq. We have 25 days to make this happen.

A small group of resisters and campaigners arrived at the Mississauga Citizenship and Immigration office just in time to see the limo pull up and Jason Kenney go inside. We learned of Kenney's appointment in Mississauga only last night, so gathering 10 or 12 people to come out on a weekday morning was a good showing. Resisters Patrick Hart and Kim Rivera were there, Kim with her baby daughter Katie. We had great signs, all directed at Jason Kenney. While the festivities were taking place inside, we held our signs onto the big plate-glass windows so everyone inside could see them. Of course, the staff closed the blinds! There was a fair amount of media there. There aren't usually protests at these innocuous events, so reporters were very interested in us, and did many interviews. When the ceremonies ended, we spread out, trying to cover every possible escape route. For a while I was positioned in front of a door, behind which a bunch of media was gathered, possibly for Minister ...

Right now at the Mississauga CIC office, members of the War Resisters Support Campaign are staking out every possible exit, as local police and Ministry officials help Jason Kenney avoid facing the people. I had to leave before the big moment, because Allan needed the car to go to work. I was already very late, and Allan wasn't too happy about it, until he heard why I was delayed. All I had to say was "cops" and "stake out," and he was grinning. When I get the rest of the story from other campaigners, I'll tell you about our morning. And PS, to the woman whose friend's citizenship ceremony was disturbed, I apologize. When you snapped, "You know, it's not all about you!", you took the words right out of my mouth. Of course you stomped off before any of us could respond, but yes, it's not all about me. Or you. It's much more important than that. More soon!

Cliff Cornell, the second US war resister deported from Canada by the Harper Government, has been charged with desertion. There will now be an investigation which will determine whether or not he'll be court martialled. Cliff is being represented by James Branum , a lawyer who works for peace and for soldiers' rights. Branum also represents Robin Long and other prisoners of conscience. I'm not surprised to read that Cliff's commander considered him a model soldier. Cliff's employer and neighbours on Gabriola Island in BC loved and respected him as a valued member of the community. Another war resister, who chose not to be public while he was in Canada, recently turned himself in to his US army base. He is being held in "restrictive custody," and has learned he'll be court martialled. I hope Cliff has better luck, but I fear for him. * * * * Until Cliff is sentenced, we won't receive direct word from him and he won't be able to speak publicly. B...

From last night's press release: This morning, Canadians will gather outside of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada office in Mississauga to demonstrate the support of the majority of Canadians for the House of Commons' June 2008 motion that directed the Government of Canada to let US war resisters remain here as permanent residents. During the rally, US Iraq War resisters will be presented with the new Citizens' Citation for Peace. According to a CIC advisory, The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, will preside over a citizenship ceremony in honour of the recipients of the 2008 Citation for Citizenship. Canadian supporters of Iraq War resisters will use this pubic appearance by the Minister to remind him that the majority of Canadians want the Harper government to immediately end its discrimination against war resisters from the US that has no basis in Canadian law. On June 3, 2008 the House of Commons passed a motion cal...

There's a ton of stuff going on in the War Resisters Support Campaign, on all fronts - legal, political and otherwise. It's far too detailed to walk through in a blog post, but I can tell you the rough outline. Three war resisters still are in immediate peril: Kimberly Rivera and her family, Patrick Hart and his family, and Dean Walcott. For all, safety in Canada is hanging by a legal thread. Many other war resisters will be in similar situations as their cases progress through the Immigration and Refugee Board and the courts. Our job, as always, is twofold. We must do everything legally possible to keep the resisters in Canada, and at the same time, we must work for the political solution that the majority of Canadians and their democratically elected representatives want. Your help is crucial in both areas - and it's making a huge difference. For the legal fight, we need funds. Even at the most discounted, rock-bottom prices, we are spending thousands of dollars on legal...

After a run of some excellent nonfiction, it's time to give my brain a rest and read a few novels. I love literature, adore novels, but in recent years am having a hard time finding novels that hold my interest. More and more literary novels are dissatisfying to me. I don't know if my standards have become unreasonably high, or if now I just prefer nonfiction. But I read book reviews, write down titles, go the library or a used bookstore with a list, and end up disliking most of them. I'm not proud of this, I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it. This morning I went Mississauga's wonderful Central Library and came home with an armful of books. As always, I'll only write about the ones I like. I'm finally reading Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion , which has been recommended to me by many wmtc readers and Toronto friends. I started it this afternoon and I'm devouring it. I've read many historical novels set in New York C...

Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein has won the first Warwick Prize for Writing for her book The Shock Doctrine . The new Warwick Prize , from the UK's University of Warwick, is "an international cross-disciplinary award which will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form, on a theme that will change with every award". This year's theme was Complexity . The award comes with £50,000 (about $90,000 Canadian), an opportunity to teach at the University for a while, and a whole lot of publicity. Congratulations to Naomi Klein on this well-deserved recognition.

Yesterday we learned that the RCMP officers who murdered Robert Dziekanski never used their training to assess the situation, spoke to witnesses, or even spoke to each other. Apparently there was no time, because Mr. Dziekanski first held up his arms with his palms facing the officers, then fled, then... turned around with a stapler in his hand. Well then. That explains it. The man was clearly out of control and needed to be tasered - training, common sense, and a human being's life be damned. In December it was announced that none of the Mounties are facing criminal charges for this incident. The Crown decided that, although the RCMP officers "contributed to" Mr. Dziekanski's death, "their use of force was reasonable". In other words, they are getting away with murder. I'm so hurt and disgusted by this story, I hardly know what to say anymore. The only good thing is that we don't let it die. Robert Dziekanski's name has become well known, but l...

McDonald's is bad for your health, bad for the environment, and bad for your community. It's not so hot for workers, either. Twenty-one-year-old Nigel Haskett came to the aid of a customer who was being abused and beaten by another customer. Haskett forced the assailant, Perry Kennon, out of the store, even blocking the door to keep Kennon from returning. This being the US, Kennon returned with a gun and shot Haskett six times. Haskett has had three abdominal surgeries, and racked up more than $300,000 in medical bills. What is McDonald's doing for this brave young man? Denying his claim for workers' compensation. From The Raw Story, among many other places. Fast food giant McDonald's has denied workers compensation benefits to a minimum wage employee who was shot when he ejected a customer who had been beating a woman inside the restaurant. A representative of the administrator for McDonald's workers compensation plan explained that "we have denied this cl...

From the number of people who are sending me this piece, I realize I must have buried it at the bottom of my last post. From Sarah Lazare, of Courage To Resist, from Common Dreams. Canadian Government Continues Ouster of US War Resisters America's neighbor to the north is erecting barriers to Iraq War resisters seeking asylum by Sarah Lazare In the past weeks, the Harper Administration has moved swiftly to push U.S. Iraq War resisters out of Canada, issuing removal orders to five more resisters who had resettled up north. Two have recently been forced out of the country, and the rest continue their appeals through the Canadian Courts. This adds to the growing number of U.S. war resisters in Canada who are being threatened with deportation and eventually U.S. military court martials and imprisonment. "According to the Nuremberg principles, people have the right to a free conscience," said Ryan Johnson, a former soldier who refused deployment to Iraq and resettled in Canada...

Breasts, art and consciousness raising - a perfect combination. Members of the Quilters of South Carolina have created some unique bras, to raise awareness of breast cancer, to memorialize victims and to honour survivors. You can see their entertaining and imaginative efforts here and here . Seriously, go click, you'll enjoy it. The exhibit is touring South Carolina , then the bras will be auctioned to support the Best Chance Network, a program that provides care and treatment of uninsured women who are diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer. It's estimated that 18,000 USians die every year because of lack of health care. Imagine what that number would be without the work of organizations like Best Chance. I've heard people say we shouldn't support groups like the Best Chance Network, as they give the government an easy out, showing health care can be financed by private charities. There's a similar argument food banks: by supporting them, we allow the governm...

Suzanne Swift, war resister and sexual assault and harassment survivor, has finally been discharged from the military. Swift was court martialled and spent almost a month in a military jail rather than redeploy to Iraq. She continued to serve in the military, but successfully resisted redeployment. She is now a proud member of Iraq Veterans Against the War . Courage to Resist has an excellent audio interview with Swift. If you're interested in the treatment of women in the military, and in military resistance in general, find 17 minutes of your day and listen here . [I've written about Swift several times; you can find updates in old posts in the "war resister" category .] * * * * Brandon Neely served in Iraq and was also a guard at the US concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay. When the Army tried to reactivate him through the Individual Ready Reserve, Neely refused to go. He's now the president of the Houston chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War . Neely parti...

Did you hear about this? Did you apply? "The best job in the world" is the tagline for a contest being sponsored by Tourism Queensland, in Australia. The "job" is to be caretaker of a home on Hamilton Island , one of the larger inhabited islands above Australia's Great Barrier Reef . The job includes round-trip air fare, six months accommodations in the house. . . and $100,000 (US). The caretaker is expected to take care of the house, enjoy the Great Barrier Reef, and blog about it once a week. The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is a newly created position. There are a few minor tasks that need to be taken care of, but the most important duty is to report back to Tourism Queensland (and the world) and let us know what's taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. To apply, contestants submitted a video of less than one minute saying why they'd be good at the job and demonstrating knowledge of the area. As of three days ago...

In case you missed it. The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush did not apologize as his trial began yesterday , and instead struck a defiant tone, telling the judges he wanted to hit back at the humiliation Iraq had suffered at American hands. It was Muntadhar al-Zeidi's first public appearance since he was arrested in mid-December for hurling shoes at Mr. Bush during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The act turned the obscure 30-year-old reporter into a cult hero in much of the Middle East. "What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected to due to the U.S. occupation and the murder of innocent people," Mr. al-Zeidi told the court. "I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons." He also said he had been tortured, with beatings and electric shocks during his interrogation, allegations the Iraqi government has denied. The trial wa...

Here's an outstanding letter in support of US war resisters in Canada, from the Sarnia Observer . War resisters deserve chance to flourish I would like to thank Jon Sanderson for his letter regarding war resisters ("Not Canada's business to interfere," The Observer, Feb. 7, 2009). Though I disagree with Mr. Sanderson, I appreciate his willingness to take action on what he believes in. I am a United States citizen and one of the protesters referred to in Mr. Sanderson's letter regarding war resisters. I agree that commitments must be met with responsibility and steadfast resolve. At times, however, commitments conflict, and during those times, each of us must determine what we value and honor most. Should the continuity of authority trump the values of justice and personal morality? It is honourable and courageous to recognize something that is wrong and to risk freedom, earned benefits and the esteem of others by removing oneself from a corrupt system. Most of th...

Redsock guest post - L. Remember the fuss over the bus/subway ads (in both the UK and Canada) promoting atheism ? You can now create your own bus ads, as I did above, by clicking here .

After thinking about the worst kinds of cruelty - against humans and non-human animals - it was a relief to remember humanity's better side. This is a great story about people going the extra mile to help creatures in need. It was a chilly day off school for Brandon Banks. The 16-year-old's town of Seal Cove, N.L., has had a harrowing week. Mr. Banks and his neighbours have gone to bed each night to the wails of five dolphins, who'd been trapped in a small and closing gap in the ice of the community's cove since the beginning of the week. "You could hear them, and see them going around in circles, and the circle just kept getting smaller and smaller," Mr. Banks said. The town had called for an icebreaker to free the white-beaked dolphins, only to be told that none were available, and even if one was, that it could push broken ice into the weakened mammals, further injuring or killing them. On Thursday, one of the dolphins had disappeared, feared dead. Four r...

We watched " Taxi to the Dark Side " last night, or tried to, anyway. I only got about halfway through. Torture is the one deal-breaker for me. I watch and read about and hear about all manner of horrors, but anything about torture will give me nightmares and worse. Even the suggestion of torture in a fictional film is enough to make me leave the room. Descriptions of torture perpetrated by the United States, funded by USian taxpayers' dollars, is too much. (One of those invasions and subsequent torture chambers is staffed by Canadians, too.) Twice I had to pause the movie to unclench my stomach and cry, then finally I told Allan he should watch the rest on his own. I'm going to assume there was nothing in the second half of the movie that I don't already know. Bagram, Abu Ghraib - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Yoo, Gonazales - the Torture Memo - the Nuremberg Trials - the Geneva Conventions - the United States Empire. It's an excellent and important movie, but on the oth...

The War Resister Support Campaign is hosting a Sunday film event to raise awareness and much-needed funds for legal defense. Please join us on Sunday, March 15 to see three short films about military resistance: "Parallels," a 10-minute film featuring Iraq War resister Joshua Key and a Vietnam War resister, "Deserter," a 24-minute film featuring Ryan Johnson and Jennifer Johnson, who live in Toronto and are active in the campaign, and "The Conscience of a Nation: Winter Soldier," a condensed version of the Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan event, featuring 30 veterans' voices in 30 minutes. When: Sunday, March 15, 2:00 p.m. Where: Innis College, 2 Sussex Drive on University of Toronto campus Suggested Donation: $7 to $20, or more if you can Why: As the Harper Government ignores the will of Parliament and the Canadian people, we are forced to defend resisters individually in court. Our legal costs are outstripping our ability to pay, and we ne...

Media Release from the War Resisters Support Campaign : CIC Website Tries to Erase Canada's History of War Resisters Both Draft Resisters and Deserters Welcomed During Vietnam War OTTAWA — Until very recently, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website included a page that accurately presented Canada's history of accepting Vietnam War resisters during the 1960s and 70s, some of whom were draft resisters and many others who had signed up voluntarily and later deserted as conscientious objectors. Within the last two weeks, this history has been removed from the ministry's website, but evidence of its existence still appears on popular Internet search engines such as Google. "Just because this part of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website has been removed does not mean that the history of Vietnam War deserters coming to Canada can be dismissed," says Dick Cotterill, a former U.S. Marine and a successful businessman in Truro, Nova Scotia. "I am evid...

The New York Post has published a cartoon that appears to depict Barack Obama as a chimpanzee, or at least links a dead chimp - shot by police - to Obama. You'll find the cartoon here and a million other places. At first glance, the main editorial cartoon in today's New York Post seemed like just another lurid reference to the story that the tabloid had been covering with breathless abandon for two days running - the shooting by Connecticut police on Monday of a pet chimpanzee that viciously attacked his owner's friend. But the caption cast the cartoon in a more sinister light. "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," it read, prompting accusations that the Post was peddling a longstanding racist slur by portraying president Barack Obama, who signed the bill into law yesterday, as an ape. In a statement issued today, Al Sharpton, the Baptist minister and civil rights activist, called the cartoon "troubling at best, given the...

The Canadian media is a 14-year-old going on her first real date, and she thinks the boy is way out of her league. He's soooo hot, and ohmigod he's like the President of the United States! I can't believe he even knows my name! From the letters in today's Globe and Mail : The media, like the throngs of greeters, singers and bell-ringers who await the arrival of "you-know-who" in Ottawa , ought to be denounced as mere sycophants reflecting the kind of colonial mentality Canadians once reserved for monarchs. At least the current monarch is ours - well, sort of. He, however, is definitely not ours, and thank God it still is so. Frankly, ever since the start of the U.S. primaries, all the hype heaped upon the man in Canada was absolutely "obaminable." L.W. Naylor, Stratford, Ontario Last night I heard someone say that the extreme hype over Obama's first visit to Canada is because "they rule us, and we don't get a vote". Maybe "we...

It's very, very sad. Click if you can take it.

Have you seen the movie " Man On Wire "? This is truly a must-see. "Man On Wire" is a documentary about Philippe Petit 's high-wire performance between the towers of the World Trade Center. It recounts the years of preparation that preceded it, Petit's performances that led up to his New York adventure, and the execution of the astounding act itself. The movie is beautifully done, especially the inventive re-creations and the music. The DVD extras include an enlightening interview with Petit, and an animated film about the event. One of the many things I loved was how some of Petit's greatest performances - between the spires of Notre Dame de Paris, between the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and of course between the Twin Towers - couldn't be publicized or advertised in advance. The acts had to be planned surreptitiously, and performed with absolutely no hype. The audience was whoever was lucky enough to be there. To me, there is something so b...

I don't have time to post the whole story, but if you care about animal rescue, and believe dogs should be judged as individuals, not by breed myths and stereotypes, please go to the Bad Rap Blog and follow links to the alert. Make a phone call: help save dogs' lives. ALERT - Wilkes County Dogs Ordered Destroyed and Updates . Some background here: The High Cost of Being a Victim .

I am extremely happy (and somewhat amazed) to report that the Chinese medicine treatments are having a positive effect on my fibromyalgia symptoms. I have more energy, better concentration and more mental clarity, less of the "brain fog" that characterizes this condition. It's a subtle change, but noticeable. At first I thought I might be having a good day, then a good week. But the changes have lasted. It's been three weeks since I noticed the difference, and it's still here. I'm really encouraged. Now comes the tricky part. Thanks to Allan having a job with benefits (USians and others: this is extra health coverage not covered by our provincial insurance), $400 worth of treatments was reimbursed. The doctor I've been seeing has very reasonable rates, much lower than many practitioners, so for that $400, I was able to give it a decent try. Now that I've used the entire acupuncture benefit, I can't afford to go for weekly treatments, unless my emp...

It's "Family Day" in Ontario, the poorly named but very welcome mid-February holiday recently invented for this province. Ontario joined several other provinces and a few countries that already had the holiday . Our family is meeting another family just like ours - two humans, two canines - at Toronto's High Park for a morning romp. (Their family also includes felines, but they don't come to the park.) My mind is very heavy with worry about two families at risk: the Harts and the Riveras. Both resisters are barely clinging to their residence in Canada. I'm trying to take the day off from blogging about this and worrying about this. I guess I already failed! It's cold and sunny today, and James will have his new video camera to capture all the park action. Should be great.

Happy 88th birthday to the mayor of my sprawling city, the Honourable Hazel McCallion . Contrary to what's been reported in the past, McCallion says she is planning on running for mayor for yet another term. I'm glad! Every year on Canada Day, McCallion presides over a ceremony for a group of new Canadians. When our citizenship comes through, I want our ceremony to be here in Mississauga, and I want Hazel to be there! Happy Birthday, Ms. McCallion. You rock.

A U.S. Marine wanted by the military for abandoning his unit, who fatally shot himself after sneaking across the border into Canada, had served two terms in Iraq, officials said Saturday. Timothy Scott, 22, turned a gun on himself Thursday at his mother's home near Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A statement released by the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Saturday said Scott had been deployed to Iraq for eight months in 2007 and for seven months in 2008. The Marine rifleman, who was assigned to headquarters and the support battalion at Camp Lejeune, had joined the Marine Corps in 2005, said the statement. Police said Scott, who left his unit sometime around Feb. 10, entered into Canada from Woodstock, New Brunswick, on Feb. 11. He arrived at his mother's home the next day, where he initially threatened her before turning the gun on himself, said RCMP Staff Sgt. Mark Furey. The Marine Corps. statement said Scott lived in Alex...

The story is so convoluted I only half-understand it myself, so I won't try to explain. Suffice to say that last night, I thought Patrick and Jill Hart had exhausted all legal avenues to stay in Canada. Their application for leave to appeal the negative decisions in their PRRA and H&C were dismissed; they are only resisters this has happened to, to date. I was told that was the end of the line. To make it worse for me (because you know it's all about me!), I thought this information wasn't yet public. So I spent the evening sniveling and depressed, and unable to share. I'm not very good at that! Earlier this evening, I learned that Jill Hart has filed a second Humanitarian and Compassionate application. I don't know how or why she was able to do that, but it's done. Hope lives. There is some other resister news in the works - very strange and very disturbing. It's still in process; I await an update. On top of that, the news from the Harts - or what I wa...

I usually don't post about party politics, but my anger at Stephen Harper and his government is so intense right now, that I'm grasping at straws for relief. First, an item Allan spotted from our (un)friends at the National Post . Inner-circle exodus spells trouble for Tories Don Martin, National Post Tuesday, February 10, 2009 When the Prime Minister's Office starts hemorrhaging senior staff with proven loyalty, something is amiss. Then again, as Freud allegedly noted, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But strange things are happening in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's close-knit office. A senior advisor and at least one strategist are moving on, which has some Conservative observers concerned about internal morale and questioning the operation's top official. MPs confide there's a darkening mood in the big guy himself, hardly surprising given the stormy economic challenge Mr. Harper faces. One source says there was a blowup between a furious Prime Minister an...

War resister news is still in process. I will update you as soon as I can. Meanwhile, here's an excellent essay written by an Iraq War veteran, originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Thank you, Evan Knappenberger, for speaking out - and for your moral clarity. Acknowledge soldier's right to object by Evan Knappenberger When I joined the Army shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 , my friends and family raised many serious questions that, after almost four years on active duty and two years of college, I have only now started addressing. As an 18-year old, I deferred answering morally charged questions like "are you ready to kill human beings?" and "what if you change your mind?" partly because the Army recruiters claimed that I would not kill in my chosen occupation. As easy, however, as it is to blame faulty recruiting practices for the dysfunctional ethics of my past, honesty dictates a more thorough self-disclosure now. As a high sc...