Saturday, July 28, 2007

Statement by the PM on his visit to Haiti

20 July 2007

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

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I’m proud to be in Port-au-Prince today to demonstrate the support of our government for the United Nations stabilization mission and the 46 Canadians who are currently serving here.

This is my first visit to Haiti and my first tour of the Caribbean and South America since becoming Prime Minister.

As I said during earlier stops in Colombia, Chile and Barbados, our government is committed to reviving and expanding Canada’s political, economic, social and security engagement throughout the Americas.

Haiti is crucial to Canadian interests for several reasons.

First we are connected by family ties of tens of thousands of Canadians of Haitian origin.

In addition, the security of our entire region will be enhanced by greater stability in Haiti, and a stronger Haitian economy will serve our goal of expanded trade and improved employment opportunities for people throughout the Americas.

This morning I saw firsthand the progress achieved on the security front by Haiti’s national police and the UN mission during a visit to Cité Soleil.

It is apparent that the people who live there feel increasingly secure, and it is gratifying to see Canadian aid achieving real results for the long-suffering people of that community.

These signs of progress underscored my positive and productive discussions with President Préval.

I encouraged him to continue working to restore the rule of law in Haiti, and to focus on building open, accountable government.

I told him that Canada remains committed to supporting his efforts in this regard, as well as those he is leading to establish good governance and to fight corruption.

Lastly, I reassured the President that Canada’s New Government and all Canadians care deeply about the success of our joint endeavours and that he can count on our help to make Haiti safer and more prosperous.

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Harper visits hospital in Haitian slum

Last Updated: Friday, July 20, 2007 | 1:56 PM ET

CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrapped up a six-day visit to Latin America and the Caribbean Friday with a visit to a notorious slum in the Haitian capital, a symbolic step to show Canadian aid to the impoverished country is making a difference.

Heavily armed United Nations troops accompanied Harper's motorcade through Cité Soleil, a sprawling slum area of Port-au-Prince. One soldier pointed a machine gun directly at crowds gathered along the rutted roadway.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper chats with women waiting to have their children vaccinated while visiting a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

While there, Harper donated a blood analyzing machine to the Hospital Sainte Catherine Laboure, where several Canadian doctors work. He also watched as a number of children were vaccinated against polio.

Harper was also to meet with Haitian President Rene Preval Friday before returning to Ottawa in the late afternoon.

Officials travelling with Harper had considered cancelling the visit after hearing reports a tropical storm was forming in the region, but decided early Monday it would be safe for the prime minister to go ahead.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The average Haitian makes $450 per year, close to 50 per cent of the population is illiterate and life expectancy is around 52 years.

Continue Article

In 2006, Canada committed $520 million over five years to Haiti.

In a speech to Barbadian business leaders Thursday night, Harper said Canada wants to help Haiti "break the cycle of poverty and violence."

"To do so requires a firm foundation of security," he said.

"Which is why Canada is focusing on police training. We have up to 100 police officers attached to the United Nations mission in Haiti."

In 2005, a former RCMP officer was shot and killed while on patrol in Cité Soleil. Mark Bourque was part of a Canadian police contingent helping provide security for that country's election.

Harper has visited Colombia, Chile and Barbados, where he's stressed free trade and closer ties within the Americas.

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'Nonsense' to believe Latin America faces only 2 political choices: PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | 9:05 AM ET

CBC News

Some South American countries are at a crossroads because they falsely believe their only choice is between socialism or the American style of capitalism, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Canada-Chile Chamber of Commerce in Santiago, Chile, Harper said Canada will play a bigger role in Latin America and the Caribbean, but one that is different from what the United States plays.

"Too often some in the hemisphere are led to believe that their only choices are — if I can be so bold to say — to return to the syndrome of economic nationalism, political authoritarianism and class warfare, or to become, quote, just like the United States," Harper said, in what appeared to be a reference to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "This is, of course, utter nonsense."

"Canada's very existence demonstrates that the choice is a false one. Canada's political structures differ substantially from those in the United States," said Harper, who is on a six-day, four-country tour of South America and the Caribbean.

"Our cultural and social models have been shaped by unique forces, and we've made our own policy choices to meet our own needs."

He said Canada and Chile are both models of free market economies that retain the independence of their social and political lives.

In attendance were President Michelle Bachelet and two former presidents, Ricardo Lagos and Patricio Aylwin, along with business executives of the Canada-Chile Chamber of Commerce.

Earlier, Harper visited a new Scotiabank branch in Santiago, where he exchanged $60 Cdn for Chilean pesos, a symbolic gesture marking the 10th anniversary of the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, right, talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday.
(Santiago Llanquin/Associated Press)

Harper arrived in the Chilean capital overnight from Colombia, where he had met with embattled Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The pair announced the start of trilateral free trade talks with Peru.

In his speech, Harper emphasized again that he believes Canada should be more engaged in this part of the world, CBC News Keith Boag said.

"This is what Harper considers Canada's neighbourhood and that in the future, you're going to see an even more activist foreign and trade policy in this region," said Boag.

First to sign

Canada was the first country to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with Chile. Chilean exports to Canada have quintupled since the deal came into effect in July 1997, with more than 300 Canadian companies active in Chile. Canada is also the top mining investor in Chile.

In the past 10 years, trade between the two countries has increased by 325 per cent, according to Canadian government officials.

The manager of Magnotta vineyard, an Ontario winery operating in Chile's Maipo Valley, said Chileans enjoy doing business with Canada.

Canada sees Chile as a reliable and safe country to do business in, said Pedro Amunategui.

Harper has been under pressure to address the issue of human rights during his visit, a topic that came up Monday during a news conference with Colombian president Uribe.

Uribe's government has been mired in scandal, with two senators in his party and one of his cousins linked to right-wing death squads. In Colombia last year, close to 700 people were kidnapped and more than 17,000 murdered. It is widely considered the western hemisphere's most dangerous country.

Harper said it was ridiculous to wait until the country had solved all of its problems before trying to offer economic help and praised Uribe for openly addressing its social, political and economic problems.

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Friday, July 27, 2007

TORY WILL ACT TO PROTECT ONTARIO PETS

Animal Rights:

Great announcement by John Tory regarding taking action against cruelty to animals. Hopefully the issue surrounding Michael Vick will put this issue into the spotlight. The time for stiffer action is long overdue on cases similar to what we have unfortunately seen over the past few months.

Thanks for reading...

Darryl

Jul-22-07
http://www.ontariopc.com/news.asp?id=710

TORY WILL ACT TO PROTECT ONTARIO PETS

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory announced today that an Ontario PC Government would take immediate action to protect pets across Ontario by strengthening the province’s weak animal protection legislation.

“Ontario has the weakest domestic animal protection laws in all of Canada,” Tory said. “Decent people have been horrified by the cruelty inflicted on innocent creatures, while Dalton McGuinty has refused to act. He has had four years to fix this problem but he has shown absolutely no leadership on this issue.”

During a visit to a local park, Tory announced that his government would act immediately to introduce legislation based upon a Private Members Bill introduced by MPP Bob Runciman on May 31, 2007. That Bill died when Dalton McGuinty ended the legislative session three weeks early on June 5th.

A John Tory Government would move immediately to:

* Strengthen protection for pets from abuse by amending the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act;
* Expand the Act to include all household pets – not just dogs and cats owned by breeders;
* Catch up to other provinces by creating an offence for causing or permitting household pets to be in distress;
* Punish those found guilty of abusing their pets with penalties of up to two years in jail, fines of up to $60,000 and lifetime bans on pet ownership;
* Make it mandatory for veterinarians to report suspected cases of animal abuse;
* Ensure that farming and hunting are not unintentionally impacted by including an exemption for accepted practices of animal husbandry and management;
* Work with all parties to ensure fast passage of this legislation.

“This plan would help to address the significant weakness in the current legislation in Ontario," said Ontario SPCA Acting Chief Inspector, Hugh Coghill. “Currently only cats, kittens, dogs and puppies kept for breeding or for sale are protected under the offence section of the Act and this has left thousands of animals in peril.”

“Anyone who cruelly harms a pet deserves to face the full weight of provincial law, and should not be able to continue owning and harming pets,” Tory said. “It’s time Ontario had a Premier who will show leadership by strengthening the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.”

Movie: Steve Irwin Tribute

Movie: Sharkwater

Movie: Sharkwater

The feature film trailer for Sharkwater - internationally award winning documentary by Rob Stewart

Movie: Grizzly Man

Movie: "Deliver us from Evil"

"Deliver us from Evil" Trailer

Filmmaker Amy Berg recounts a harrowing story of child abuse and how a serial child molester went free for the better part of two decades in this documentary. Oliver O’Grady was a Catholic priest who served in a number of parishes in Southern California during the 1970s and ’80s. O’Grady was also a habitual child molester who abused dozens of youngsters who were entrusted to his care, and while his superiors in the church were aware of O’Grady’s crimes as early as 1973, they opted to simply move him from one congregation to another rather than turn him in to authorities or strip him of his ordination. In Deliver Us From Evil, a number of O’Grady’s victims and their families discuss his crimes and the repercussions they feel to this day. O’Grady himself also appears in the film, speaking candidly about his career as a sexual predator and recounting his misdeeds in detail. (After finally being convicted of child sexual abuse, O’Grady served time in prison and now lives in Ireland, where he is still looked after by Catholic clergy.) Berg also offers a look into the history of the Catholic Church and how its leadership has often protected those within the hierarchy at the expense of their worshipers. Deliver Us From Evil was named Best Documentary Feature at the 2006 Los Angeles

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LA Church 'agrees abuse pay deal'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6899391.stm

Since 2002 nearly 1,000 people have filed abuse claims in California
More than 500 people allegedly abused by Los Angeles Catholic priests are to receive a record-breaking compensation pay-out, their main lawyer says.

The deal, which a judge must approve, is reported to be worth $660m (£324m).

With the alleged abuse dating back to the 1940s, lawyer Ray Boucher said it was payment of a long overdue debt.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, later apologised to the victims, pledging that the abuse "will not happen again".

"There really is no way to go back and give them that innocence that was taken from them. The one thing I wish I could give the victims... I cannot," Cardinal Mahony said.

'Transparency critical'

It would be the largest payment by the US Church since the abuse became public in 2002 and just before a series of trials into sex claims were to begin.

The agreement, if approved, will settle all 15 upcoming paedophilia trials against Los Angeles archdiocese and avoids the threat of Cardinal Mahony being forced to testify about how the Church dealt with abuses spanning the 1940s to 1990s.

Los Angeles diocese records released in the past revealed that for decades priests accused of child sex abuse were simply moved to new assignments or provided with therapy, Church leaders believing that they could be rehabilitated.

This latest settlement calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files, Mr Boucher said.

"Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions," he said.

Steven Sanchez, a plaintiff in the case, said he was both relieved and disappointed by the outcome.

"I was really emotionally ready to take on the archdiocese in court in less than 48 hours, but I'm glad all victims are going to be compensated," he said.

"I hope all victims will find some type of healing in this process."

Insurance claim

The deal is expected to be officially announced in a joint statement to be released by the plaintiffs and archdiocese later on Sunday, and a news conference will take place on Monday.

The reported figure of $660m dwarfs the $157m settlement paid out by the diocese of Boston following a child sex scandal which became public in 2002.

Cardinal Mahony has said property will be sold to raise the funds
The Los Angeles payment, which amounts to an average of $1.3m for each plaintiff, takes the total paid out by US dioceses to $2bn since 1950, with Los Angeles paying about one quarter of that.

Los Angeles is the country's most populous Catholic diocese, serving more than three million parishioners, but the scandal has brought the archdiocese close to financial ruin.

According to Church lawyers the diocese is likely to pay $250m in cash, the rest of the sum being covered by insurance and payments by religious orders.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Mahoney told parishioners in an open letter that the Church would sell its 12-storey administrative building and was considering the sale of about 50 other non-essential properties to raise funds.

The abuse has also severely dented confidence in the Church and its leaders, the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles says.

'Stolen childhood'

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said while it was the largest settlement by the Church, money was not the key objective for victims.

"No settlement, no amount of money, can restore the shattered trust and the stolen childhoods and the betrayed faith of people who were wounded by abusive priests and by complicit bishops," he said.

"But, having said that, certainly this represents a tremendous achievement by these brave survivors, who somehow found the strength to come forward, report the crimes, get legal help, expose the predators and ultimately endure a pretty long, gruelling legal process."

Since 2002 nearly 1,000 people have filed such claims against the Roman Catholic Church in California alone.

In February 2004, a report commissioned by the Church said more than 4,000 Roman Catholic priests in the US had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years.

Movie: Escape to Canada

Movie: Escape to Canada

Canada - not the U.S. - is North America's pre-eminent freedom-loving country. Document maker Albert Nerenberg's "Escape to Canada" is a proud, benevolent, mischievous and altogether winning portrait of a country where same-sex marriage and public dope smoking is O.K. Where young Americans have gone to avoid military service since Vietnam.

The cruel spectacle of illegal horse races

LORENZO TONDO

From Friday's Globe and Mail

July 27, 2007 at 12:00 AM EDT

SICILY — Day is breaking in Sicily and the next illegal horse race is about to begin. The street is blocked, the sidewalks crowded with noisy men holding fists full of money. At the far end of the road, two visibly agitated horses stomp nervously, their hooves sliding on the asphalt. A few men armed with serious gazes and long sticks try to keep them under control.

“They start at dawn, or sometimes at night, by the light of car headlights,” said Giuseppe, a 29-year-old jockey from the city of Agrigento who doesn't want his real name used. Although races may vary in location and the number of horses participating, they all come down to two things: illegal betting and animal abuse.

The betting is becoming big business for criminal organizations: Illegal horse racing is estimated to generate as much as $1.5-billion (U.S.) a year in southern Italy, where the influence of the Mafia is strong.

Those familiar with the races say the horses often run to the point of exhaustion, and that the losers are often killed, some butchered and sold as meat on the black market. In some parts of Sicily, the losing horse is stoned to death; such a horse was found dead on a beach near the city of Catania a few months ago, presumably after losing.

The losing horse in a race usually dies, either by human hand or exhaustion, like this horse in Mussomeli, Italy, in 1981.

The losing horse in a race usually dies, either by human hand or exhaustion, like this horse in Mussomeli, Italy, in 1981. (LETIZIA BATTAGLIA/COURTESY GALLERIA BE VEDERE, MILANO)

Illegal horse races have always existed in Sicily, tolerated by citizens because they were viewed as folklore. Occasionally, races were even organized during regional holidays. More rarely, they were authorized by city hall.

Today, the races are clandestine. City streets are closed off selectively, fans are informed about a race's time and whereabouts. Residents who live along the makeshift urban courses are threatened with violence if they leave their houses during the event.

Police estimate that about 300 illegal races are run every year, and the number is growing. Only 10 are known to have been stopped this year.

“The streets are closed off from one end to the other. No one can get through,” Giuseppe said. “The course is about 400 metres, sometimes 500. They look for streets on an incline so that the horses don't slip. But it's asphalt all the same, and every once in a while a mess happens – the horses slip on the stuff … asphalt isn't good for horses. It damages their tendons. And in order to ease the pain, [the organizers] drug them. But sometimes a horse takes a bad fall and breaks some bones. Then it is shot.”

Animal-rights organizations in Italy have tried to make waves about the practice. The Anti-Vivisection League recently released a report entitled Zoomafia 2007, underlining how criminal organizations have been focusing more and more on illegal horse racing, “an industry truly based on violence and exploitation.”

Several weeks ago, in a separate report, ENPA, the national animal protection organization, noted that in the province of Catania in western Sicily, illegal horse races are being held weekly. The report, called EcoMafia 2007, calls clandestine horse racing an epidemic that is affecting not only Sicily, but Campania, and the Puglia region as well.

Ciro Troiano, 42, is head of Zoomafia, a department of the Anti-Vivisection League that reports on and works to prevent cruelty to animals by the Mafia. “For every horse, up to 7,000 euros [just over $10,000] may be bet,” he said. “So the profit of every race runs at about 50,000 euros.”

When police do manage to stop races, as they did recently in the city of Syracuse, they seize horses and money and send some of those responsible to prison. But such actions are rare.

Author Gery Palazzotto, 44, wrote a book on clandestine horse racing in Sicily entitled Fotofinish. Mr. Palazzotto says the “races are quick events that are born at dawn on any particular day and don't leave any traces.

“Once in a while, the police are able to film or block them, thanks to a tip from the public. But it's not enough. In Sicily, it is certainly not [the races] that are the emergency, but they are part of a system that makes up the true Sicilian emergency: the Mafia. And by now it is absolutely clear that Cosa Nostra is up to its neck in these races.”

Special to The Globe and Mail

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Movie: Screamers

Movie: Screamers

New Documentary about recognizing the Armenian Genocide as Caral Garapedian follows System of a Down's 2005 World Tour and thier campaign for the genocide recogniztion. Director weaves footage of recent genocides and political uproar to try and stop/prevent genocides acrpss our civilized world

Movie: NO END IN SIGHT

Movie: Murderball

Movie: The War Tapes

Movie: The War Tapes

This is the official trailer for the movie The War Tapes. Please visit thewartapes.com for more information.

Movie "Inside the Green Beret"

Inside the Green Beret

May 30, 2007—In a remote outpost in south central Afghanistan, U.S. Army Special Forces—known commonly as Green Berets—face the difficult task of protecting civilians from Taliban attacks.

Long stretches of boredom at camp alternate with risky rescue missions, dangerous guerilla attacks, and deadly roadside bombings.

Hear firsthand from a National Geographic film director about his crew's unprecedented, ten-day access to these elite soldiers—and how the assignment almost cost the filmmakers their lives.

Inside the Green Berets will air Sunday, June 3, on the National Geographic Channel.
National Geographic Channel

Movie: Domino Theory

Movie: Domino Theory

Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution are pushing the pendulum of power towards the left for his oil-rich nation. Canadian documentary film-makers, Skot Sanderson and Mitch St.Pierre, travel to this South American nation in search of answers to the questions surrounding President Chavez and his reforms for Venezuel. The friendship between Chavez and longtime ruler Fidel Castro is forging an alliance that is being closely monitored by Washington. After spending some time filming in Cuba in search of answers to this close relationship, Skot and Mitch head to Venezuela in the DOMINO THEORY, to continue looking for answers to the so-called threat in the south.

Movie: 638 Ways to Kill Castro

Movie: Cocaine Cowboys

Movie: Cocaine Cowboys

The cocaine trade of the 70s and 80s had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world's most glamorous hot spots, the epicenter of a $20 billion annual business fed by Colombia's Medellin cartel. By the early 80s, Miami's tripled homicide rate had made it the murder capital of the country, for which a Time cover story dubbed the city "Paradise Lost."

With COCAINE COWBOYS, filmmaker Billy Corben -- whose first feature, Raw Deal: A Question Of Consent, caused a sensation at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival -- paints a dazzling portrait of a cultural explosion that still echoes as Hollywood myth, evidenced by the latest manifestation, NBC/Universal's Miami Vice, opening July 28th. Composer of the original "Miami Vice" theme, Jan Hammer, provides the score.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Chainsaws in Colombia

Dan Gardner • Chainsaws in Colombia

Photograph by : Amnesty International

Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Friday, July 20, 2007

The victims were dragged into the town slaughterhouse. Amid chains and meat hooks, they were bound, suspended and interrogated. Where are the guerrillas? Are you a guerrilla? The men had machetes and chainsaws. Whatever the victims said, however they pleaded, they lost a hand. An arm. A leg. Finally, almost mercifully, they were decapitated.

When Stephen Harper flew to Bogota earlier this week, the news stories mentioned "human rights concerns." They didn't say much more than that, which is a pity because in Colombia "human rights concerns" are not vague abstractions. They involve men who torture and murder with chainsaws: A few have been caught and punished; some have walked away whistling; and many are still at it.

Mr. Harper acknowledged that all is not well in Colombia, but he defended his decision to launch free trade talks. "We are not going to say fix all your social, political and human rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you," the prime minister said. "That's ridiculous." That sounds pretty reasonable. But things get a little murkier when you know that growing evidence suggests the president whose hand Mr. Harper shook leads a government with deep connections to men who torture and murder with chainsaws.

The timing of Mr. Harper's trip was strangely apt. Almost precisely 10 years earlier -- on July 15, 1997 -- paramilitary thugs entered a village in the southeastern jungles of Colombia. What followed was a four-day orgy of rape, torture and murder that came to be known as the Mapiripan massacre. It is believed that 49 people died, although only three, headless, bodies were found. All the others were dismembered in the slaughterhouse and the body parts dumped in the Guaviare River.

Colombian history is riddled with massacres. But two things set Mapiripan apart.

One was the use of chainsaws. After Mapiripan, it became the paramilitaries' signature.

The other was the location. The traditional home of the paramilitaries is northwestern Colombia, where wealthy cattle barons paid them to keep out leftist guerrillas and drive peasants from coveted land. Mapiripan lay in the opposite corner of the country, so the paramilitaries' arrival suggested different interests were involved.

Jose Luis Parra -- then the top federal prosecutor in the region, today a refugee living in Ottawa -- had a sense of which interests might be involved almost as soon as he heard of the massacre. It was July 19. A judge in Mapiripan had phoned a nearby Colombian army base shortly after the paramilitaries arrived, but no one came to stop them. The judge kept making calls. After four days, word got to Parra.

In Colombia, prosecutors are also investigators, and Parra immediately went to the military and asked to be flown to Mapiripan. Sorry, the officers said. No helicopters available.

Parra flew in military helicopters every day. "In the jungle, it's like a taxi," he says. There was always a helicopter available. Looking over the shoulder of the man telling him there were no helicopters, he could see three helicopters.

Not until the next day did the military fly Parra to Mapiripan. The paramilitaries were gone. Greeting Parra instead was another general. Everything's fine here, the general said. Nothing much to see.

Colombia is a frustrating country. So full of riches, beauty and promise. So full of poverty, suffering and death. Jose Luis Parra is a living symbol of this painful duality.

A decade ago, Parra was a brilliant young lawyer with a staff of hundreds and a dangerous job. Today, he is on welfare.

Parra's problem is that he is honest. As a prosecutor in Colombia, it's easy to get rich. Drug traffickers, guerrillas, paramilitaries, garden-variety criminals: Everyone's handing out money. "The corruption is everywhere," he shrugs. Sometimes you don't even have to do anything for it. Just look the other way and get rich. But he refused. He wouldn't look away.

In part because of Parra's work, the Mapiripan massacre was exposed and charges brought against paramilitary goons. That effectively ended life as Parra knew it. "I could only go out in an armoured car," he recalls. His daughter, not yet four at the time, can still recall him telling his omnipresent platoon of bodyguards to hide their guns under the sofa cushions so they wouldn't scare the little girl.

Unable to work or live a normal life, Parra decided to follow so many other Colombians into exile. He and his family arrived in Ottawa on Dec. 7, 1998.

Ultimately, some of the thugs responsible for the Mapiripan massacre were convicted and sent to prison. So were a few army officers, including a general who awaits sentencing. But Parra, who is writing a book about Mapiripan, is convinced that those taken down were minor players and fall guys.

Those truly responsible have never been held to account. And they likely never will be.

A law passed in 2003 by Alvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia, offers amnesty in exchange for demobilization. The guerrillas have passed, knowing from experience that guerrillas who lay down their weapons have an unfortunate tendency to die violently. But the paramilitaries demobilized en masse.

At least, that's the official story. Human Rights Watch says the government has "lost track of several thousand of these supposedly demobilized troops, and does not currently know where they are or what they're doing." And the rate of paramilitary murders -- between 800 and 900 people are killed each year, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists -- is essentially unchanged.

At the same time, the number of extra-judicial killings by the military itself seems to be rising. When a coalition of 80 Colombian human rights groups issued a report documenting the army's abuses, Mr. Uribe said some human-rights groups were terrorist fronts. In Colombia, talk like that can get people killed.

Further doubts about Mr. Uribe were raised earlier this year when -- thanks to some indescribably brave judges, prosecutors and journalists -- more than a dozen of the president's allies in Congress were arrested on suspicion of involvement with paramilitaries. The same charge has been brought against Mr. Uribe's former campaign manager and intelligence chief.

Mr. Uribe has responded by suggesting that any politician convicted of paramilitary involvement should be pardoned in exchange for a confession.

As a member of the land-owning elite in the province that spawned the paramilitaries, there have long been suspicions about Mr. Uribe's connections. And in 2004, a Newsweek reporter obtained a 1991 U.S. military intelligence report that states "Uribe has worked for the Medellin cartel and is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria." Yes, that Pablo Escobar.

The U.S. government reacted to the Newsweek story by denouncing its own intelligence as wrong and meaningless. Mr. Uribe is the White House's strongest ally in Latin America. Last year, George W. Bush signed a free trade agreement with Mr. Uribe, but Democrats in Congress refuse to pass it until real progress is seen on human rights.

That's the essential background needed to understand Mr. Harper's remarks in Bogota. He wasn't musing in the abstract. He was taking sides in an important American debate.

If Canadians take human rights seriously, it will be an important debate in this country, too.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Time to Consider a Casino for Toronto

Time to Consider a Casino for Toronto

Given the city of Toronto cash crunch, one way to mediate any tax increases, service cuts and provincial/federal handouts may be to seriously consider the proposal by Cesar Palacio. A waterfront casino would bring in needed revenue for the city/TTC and would also help with the waterfront revitalization. Several other major cities including Montreal have a casino and I think it is well past time Toronto explored this option as well.

Thanks for reading...

Darryl

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Toronto councillor wants a casino

Saturday, July 14, 2007 - 06:30 PM
By: 680News staff with a report from Taiwo Lewis

Toronto - Toronto city council will vote Monday on whether to introduce new taxes. But at least one councillor has a different idea of how to raise money for the city.

Davenport Councillor Cesar Palacio thinks more taxes are the wrong way to go. Instead, he is recommending Toronto consider building a casino.

Palacio said a casino could generate millions of dollars, pointing to the success of casinos in other major North American cities.

In Canada, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax, Montreal and Hull are already raking in cash off the slots. Some smaller communities across Ontario field more money from casinos than from their entire tax assessment base.

Proponents have suggested a casino could be built in the city's port lands, or near Woodbine Racetrack. Proceeds could be earmarked for subway expansion or waterfront revitalization.

680News spoke with passersby at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown Toronto. Some were less than enthusiastic about the idea of a casino.

"It's a terrible idea," said one woman. "There's too much addiction to gambling and it would just promote that, so we'd get rich off someone else's back."

But another, Jackie, agreed with others who say provincial lotteries, a racetrack and online are already generating money in Toronto. She wasn't concerned about gambling addictions.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Elephants loose in Newmarket!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

U.S. tops global military spending

KARL RITTER

Associatee Press

June 11, 2007 at 11:25 AM EDT

STOCKHOLM — The United States remained the world's biggest military spender last year, devoting about $529 billion (U.S.) to arms, while China overtook Japan as Asia's top arms spender, a Swedish research institute said Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said the United States spent the most on arms, ahead of Britain and France.

“The large increase in the USA's military spending is to a great extent due to the costly military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” SIPRI said in its annual report, noting that the United States spent $505 billion in 2005.

China's growing military expenditures reached nearly $50 billion, making it the fourth-biggest arms spender in the world, SIPRI said in its annual report. Japan was fifth with $43.7 billion.

Internet Links

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

The figures cited were in 2005 U.S. dollars.

“It is worth asking how cost-effective military expenditure is as a way of increasing the security of human lives,” SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skons said.

“For example, we know that millions of lives could be saved through basic health interventions that would cost a fraction of what the world spends on military forces every year.”

International arms transfers have grown continuously since 2002, with China and India being the biggest importers and the United States and Russia the two major exporters, the Stockholm-based institute said.

Russia, which spent $34.7 billion on arms, has used its energy wealth to revive national pride, to restore its influence in surrounding countries and to maximize its geopolitical power, SIPRI said.

Five Middle Eastern countries were among the top 10 importers of weapons.

“While much media attention was given to arms deliveries to Iran, mainly from Russia, deliveries from the U.S.A. and European countries to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were significantly larger,” the report said.

The institute said the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China together held more than 26,000 nuclear warheads at the start of 2007.

“Although the total number of warheads is gradually being cut, all five countries are undertaking or planning major programs to update their nuclear weapon arsenals,” SIPRI said.

The report said that the U.S. government provided a total of $432 billion in supplemental appropriations for the war on terrorism between September 2001 and June 2006.

“This massive increase in U.S. military spending has been one of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the U.S. economy since 2001,” SIPRI said.

Officials say Sudan working with US in war on terror

Some contend move undermines stance on Darfur

By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times | June 11, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Sudan secretly has worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq -- an example of how the United States continues to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

President Bush has condemned the killings in Darfur as genocide and imposed sanctions on Sudan's government. But some critics say the administration has soft-pedaled the sanctions to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan.

The relationship underscores the complex realities of world after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; the United States has relied heavily on intelligence and military cooperation from countries, including Sudan and Uzbekistan, that are considered pariah states for their human-rights records.

"Intelligence cooperation takes place for a whole lot of reasons," said a US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing intelligence assessments. "It's not always between people who love each other deeply."

Sudan has become increasingly valuable to the United States since the terrorist attacks because the Sunni Arab nation is a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan. That steady flow of foreign fighters has provided cover for Sudan's Mukhabarat intelligence service to insert spies into Iraq, officials said.

"If you've got jihadists traveling via Sudan to get into Iraq, there's a pattern there in and of itself that would not raise suspicion," said a former high-ranking CIA official familiar with Sudan's cooperation with the agency.

"There's not much that blond-haired, blue-eyed case officers from the United States can do in the entire Middle East, and there's nothing they can do in Iraq," said a second former CIA official. "Sudanese can go places we don't go. They're Arabs. They can wander around."

The US-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia, working to cultivate contacts with militias and Islamic courts in an effort to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.

Sudan gets benefits in return. Its relationship with the CIA has given it an important back channel for communications with the US government.

Some critics accuse the Bush administration of being soft on Sudan for fear of jeopardizing the cooperation on counterterrorism. John Prendergast, the former director of African affairs for the National Security Council in the Clinton administration, called the latest sanctions announced in May by Bush "window dressing," designed to appear tough while putting little real pressure on Sudan to halt government-linked Arab militias from killing members of African tribes in Darfur.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Movie: Shake Hands with the Devil

Movie: Shake Hands with the Devil

In 1994 one man was given the task by the United Nations to ensure that peace was maintained in Rwanda: Canadian General Romeo Dallaire. ... all » Based on General Dallaire's best selling book of the same title, filmmaker Peter Raymont follows Dallaire during his first return trip to Rwanda, early in April 2004 on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, revisiting the killing fields that still haunt him today. An extraordinary account by a primary witness.