U.S. Soldier Threatens Photog, Deletes Images in Afghanistan
March 04, 2007 AP
JALALABAD, Pakistan -- U.S. Marines fleeing a militant ambush Sunday opened fire on civilian cars and pedestrians on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, wounded Afghans said. Up to 16 people were killed and 34 wounded in the violence, officials said.
A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled minivan as the American convoy approached, then militant gunmen fired on the troops inside the vehicles, who returned fire, the U.S. military said.
As the Americans sped away, they treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker, said Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar. But Maj. William Mitchell, a U.S. military spokesman, said those killed and injured may have been shot by the militants.
More than a half dozen Afghans recuperating from bullet wounds told The Associated Press that the U.S. forces fired indiscriminately along at least a six-mile stretch of one of eastern Afghanistan's busiest highways — a route often filled not only with cars and trucks but Afghans on foot and bicycles.
"They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway," said Tur Gul, 38, who was standing on the roadside by a gas station and was shot twice in his right hand. "They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot."
The casualty tolls varied widely. The U.S. military said 16 civilians were killed and 24 wounded "during the initial attack." A U.S. soldier was also injured. The incident was under investigation, the military said.
"We certainly believe it's possible that the incoming fire from the ambush was wholly or partly responsible for the civilian casualties," Mitchell said.
Nangarhar provincial health chief Ajmel Pardus said eight people were killed, including a woman and two boys, and 34 were wounded. Four of the wounded were in critical condition, he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the chief of the Interior Ministry's criminal division would lead a delegation to Nangarhar province on Monday to investigate. Bashary said it appeared that gunfire from the U.S. soldiers caused most of the casualties.
The gunfire from Americans prompted angry demonstrations in the region — just 30 miles west of the Pakistan border. Hundreds of Afghans blocked the road and threw rocks at police, with some demonstrators shouting "Death to America! Death to Karzai," a reference to President Hamid Karzai.
At the Jalalabad hospital, several victims said the American convoy approached them on the highway and opened fire. As the convoy neared, many cars pulled over to the side of the road, but were still hit by gunfire.
"When we parked our vehicle, when they passed us, they opened fire on our vehicle," said 15-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, who was hit by two bullets, in his left arm and his right ear. "It was a convoy of three American Humvees. All three humvees were firing around."
Ahmed Najib, 23, lay in the next bed, hit by a bullet in his right shoulder.
"One American was in the first vehicle, shouting to stop on the side of the road, and we stopped. The first vehicle did not fire on us, but the second opened fire on our car," Najib said, adding that his 2-year-old brother was grazed by a bullet on his cheek. "I saw them turning and firing in this direction, then turning and firing in that direction. I even saw a farmer shot by the Americans."
NATO and U.S. forces are often accused of firing at Afghan civilians they fear may be about to launch an attack. Though officials say the shootings are done in self defense, they often injure or kill innocent civilians. On Dec. 3, British troops speeding away from a suicide bomb attack in Kandahar city opened fire on cars, killing one civilian and wounding six others.
U.S. forces near Sunday's bombing later deleted photos taken by a freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and video taken by a freelancer working for AP Television News. Neither the photographer nor the cameraman witnessed the suicide attack or the subsequent gunfire. It was not immediately known why the soldiers deleted the photos and videos. The U.S. military didn't immediately comment on the matter.
The freelance photographer, Rahmat Gul, said he took photos of a four-wheel drive vehicle where three Afghans had been shot to death inside.
An American soldier then took Gul's camera and deleted the photos. Gul said he later received permission to take photos from another soldier, but that the first soldier came back and angrily told him to delete the photos again. Gul said the soldier then raised his fist as if he was going to strike Gul.
The U.S. forces involved in the attack and ensuing gunfire were part of the U.S.-led coalition, not NATO's International Security Assistance Force. An official who asked not to be identified said the troops were Marine Special Forces.
A man claiming to speak for Hezb-e-Islami, a group he said is linked with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the bombing and identified the attacker as an Afghan named Haji Ihsanullah in a telephone call to AP. The spokesman said that the attack was carried out by a breakaway faction of Hezb-e-Islami that was once led by Younis Khalis, a former mujahedeen commander who died last year. The group is now believed to be led by a son of Khalis.
The purported spokesman, who identified himself as Qari Sajjad, said the explosion "destroyed two vehicles, killing or injuring American soldiers." Sajjad said the attack was in revenge for "cruel acts" done to Afghans by U.S. forces.
Lt. Col. David Accetta, a coalition spokesman, said the attack demonstrated the militants' "blatant disregard for human life" by attacking forces in a populated area. NATO officials repeatedly say that suicide bombs aimed at international and Afghan forces kill far more civilians than soldiers.
In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, two soldiers were killed during a combat operation Saturday, though NATO's International Security Assistance Force did not identify their nationalities or say where the violence happened.
Helmand province, where British troops operate, has seen a number of clashes the last several weeks. Canada also has soldiers in the south, in neighboring Kandahar province.
16 Civilians Die as U.S. Troops Open Fire in Afghanistan
NewYorkTimes
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 4 — American troops opened fire on a highway filled with civilian cars and bystanders today, American and Afghan officials said, in an incident that the Americans said left 16 civilians dead and 24 wounded as they fled the scene of a suicide car bombing in eastern Afghanistan. One American was also wounded.
A suicide car bombing was part of the violence, the United States military said.
The shooting set off demonstrations, with local people blocking the highway, the main road east from the town of Jalalabad to the border with Pakistan.
And there were differences in some of the accounts of the incident, with the Americans saying that the civilians were caught in crossfire between the troops and militants, and Afghan witnesses and some authorities blaming the Americans for indiscriminately shooting at civilian vehicles in anger after the explosion.
The United States military said the unit came under fire after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car near their convoy “as part of a complex ambush involving enemy small-arms fire from several directions.”
The marines, who were on patrol near Jalalabad airfield, returned fire, and the civilians were killed and wounded in the crossfire during the battle, according to a statement from the military press office at Bagram airbase near Kabul.
“We regret the death of innocent Afghan citizens as a result of the Taliban extremists’ cowardly act,” Lt. Col. David Accetta, a military spokesman, said in the statement. “Once again, the terrorists demonstrated their blatant disregard for human life by attacking coalition forces in a populated area, knowing full well that innocent Afghans would be killed and wounded in the attack.”
Yet some of the wounded interviewed in the hospital by news agencies said the only shooting came from the American troops. A hospital official, who asked not to be named, said all the wounded were suffering from bullet wounds and not shrapnel from the bomb explosion.
Hundreds of Afghans blocked the road and threw rocks at police officers in protest afterward, with some demonstrators shouting “Death to America! Death to Karzai,” a reference to President Hamid Karzai, The Associated Press reported.
The shooting is a setback for American forces in Afghanistan, who have been working to contain the continuing insurgent attacks, in particular roadside bombs and suicide attacks, and win the support of the people with reconstruction and development projects. Deadly riots shook Kabul last May after American troops were involved in a fatal car crash and then opened fire on the crowd.
Among the dead this morning were a woman and two children in their early teens, said Dr. Ajmal Pardez, the provincial director of health, speaking by telephone from the Jalalabad city hospital. He said the hospital received 10 dead and 25 wounded people from the incident, with four people in critical condition, he said.
After the suicide attack, the American soldiers treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker, though none of the people showed hostile intent, Muhammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar, told The Associated Press.
“They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway,” said Tur Gul, 38, who was standing on the roadside by a gas station and was shot twice in his right hand. “They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot.”
Some of the wounded interviewed by The Associated Press said the soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on passing cars and pedestrians on the busy main road.
“When we parked our vehicle, when they passed us, they opened fire on our vehicle,” said 15-year-old Mohammad Ishaq, who was hit by two bullets, in his left arm and his right ear. “It was a convoy of three American Humvees. All three Humvees were firing around.”
In other fighting, two British soldiers were killed on Saturday in southern Afghanistan, the British Defense Ministry said today. The men were involved in heavy fighting that has raged for three days in the town of Sangin, said Col. Tom Collins, a NATO spokesman in Kabul. Townspeople have fled the town and abandoned their shops as Taliban insurgents and British troops stationed there have been trading artillery and rockets, according to a resident of the area.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Americans open fire on civilians in Afghanistan
media Lynching of Barack Obama
The Very Public Lynching of Barack Obama
Progressive Daily Beacon A. Alexander, March 4th, 2007
So this is what passes for news: "Obama's White Ancestors May Have Owned Slaves."
Gosh, do ya think?
Republican Strom Thurmond's ancestors owned Al Sharpton's enslaved relatives. Though Thurmond, the bigoted segregationist, wouldn't have admitted it publicly his white ancestors probably created some not-so-Caucasian cousins. Come to think of it, ol' Strom himself created some not-so-Caucasian children.
The point is that in the United States, the chances are pretty damned good that most African-Americans have white ancestors who not only owned slaves, but owned what would now be their relatives. And by "their relatives" it is meant the black person's relatives and the white person's relatives, because they often, as Strom Thurmond's own history suggests, became one-in-the-same. Al Sharpton's ancestors were probably not only owned by Thurmond's family, but somewhere along the line their families likely joined.
If the media wasn't aware, and how could they not be, Thomas Jefferson's mistress was also his African-American slave and they had children together. Following that through to its logical conclusion, the contemporary African-American ancestors of Jefferson's slave and lover, Sally Hemings, had a white relative, Thomas Jefferson, who once owned slaves. Shock!
Goodness me! That means, too, it is almost certain that Martin Luther King JR and Malcolm X's white ancestors, assuming they had a few, were also slave owners. Hey, what's the chance that Jackie Robinson's ancestors were enslaved by white slave owners who, perhaps, consummated a relationship with his black ancestors...? Ut-oh...how many slaves did Condi Rice's white ancestors own?
It strikes me as bizarre that the U.S. mainstream, corporate-owned media doesn't play these little games of "gotcha" with white candidates. Perhaps, the real story might be that George W. Bush or Dick Cheney or John McCain's ancestors owned slaves. Somehow, however, we never address those issues. I wonder, since the slaves were emancipated, how many stories have the U.S. media done that covered a white candidates relationship to slave ownership? Probably none!
Funny, too, how it is that a black candidate -- the same black candidate with white slave-owning relatives -- was more-or-less accused of being a terrorist. It seems this silly slave issue is part of the claim that Barack Obama, an African-American, isn't 'black enough'. Let's see...the black candidate has been called a terrorist, has had his 'blackness' called into question, and stands accused of having white slave-owning ancestors. It doesn't seem like America has moved too far beyond its slave-owning and racist roots, does it?
What's next, a commercial about Obama "the big black buck" who can't get enough of the white girls? Sorry, they've all ready done that to Tennessee's Herald Ford.
You'll pardon my cynicism, but it just doesn't seem to me that the United States has moved all that far from its racist, slave-owning past. Honestly, Obama's candidacy makes it quite clear that America hasn't progressed much at all. Sure, we like to tell ourselves that we've left our slave-owning, white sheet wearing, lynch 'em for being uppity, and segregated past behind...but what is happening to Obama, with a major assist from the media, makes it clear that not much has changed. You see, to say a black man isn't 'black enough'; to accuse him of being responsible for the enslavement of his own peoples; and, because of his skin color and name, to label him a terrorist...is the most insidious form of racism. It's just a little more subtle and the people perpetuating it -- perhaps GOP operatives or Hillary Clinton's campaign -- and the media know full well what they are doing.
This is the very public lynching of Barack Obama.
Cnd soldiers - drunk arrested attack police on leave
Canadian soldiers arrested after drunken brawl
Cyprus Mail News March 4, 2007
THREE Canadian soldiers were arrested after a drunken brawl with police outside a club in Limassol early yesterday.
The soldiers were among 200 Canadians from the ISAF force in Afghanistan currently on leave in Cyprus.
Two police officers were injured in the incident in the tourist area of Yermasoyia.
According to police, the drunken Canadians began swearing at a nightclub bouncer after he requested to see identification in order to allow them entry to the club.
Police officers who were nearby and saw the incident approached the men and asked them to stop causing a disturbance.
The men began swearing at the police too and when officers moved to arrest them, the Canadians attacked and injured them.
Finally, the three men were arrested while two policemen were taken to Limassol General Hospital with bruises and scratches.
Limassol police said that the men were charged and released a few hours after their arrest. He added that the men were due to return to their country today.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Is Iggy Ready to Pop? theory or conspiracy or speculation?
Is Iggy Ready to Pop?
Craig Huckerby -- SooNews.ca -- Friday, March 2, 2007
SooNews' Frank Tridico says there is a nasty little battle going on within the federal Liberal Party.
Even as Grit leader Stéphane Dion prepares for what looks to be a potential election call coming soon, Tridico argues there are political vultures swarming from above.
Those vultures include former leadership candidates Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae. Ignatieff and Rae were ranked first and second in the leadership convention but were ousted by Dion, courtesy of Gerard Kennedy.
Did Kennedy support the weakest link hoping for a Party collapse so he could come back for another shot? Is Ignatieff hogging air time at the expense of Dion? Is Rae working behind the scenes to undermine both Dion and Ignatieff?
To read Frank Tridico's latest assessment of politics on the inside click: {below}
Is Iggy Ready to Pop Dion?
Frank Tridico
Is Iggy Ready to Pop Dion?
Frank Tridico -- SOONEWS.CA -- Friday, March 2, 2007
There are two trains of thought as to who really is in charge of the federal Liberal Party, if it is in fact, under any form of influence.
The first, suggests that newly crowned Grit leader Stéphane Dion has the backing of the mid to left leaning Liberals, and specifically the more disenfranchised sectors: youth, women and minorities. His public commitment to ensuring 33% of candidates for the next election being women, and his pledge toward environmental reform suggests he charting the Party’s course in a very clear direction.
The second perception is that Mr. Dion has a core group of disgruntled, opportunists that are possibly working to undermine his legitimacy and authority as leader of the Party. Some say they want him out, and are preparing for an eventual coup once a suspected political collapse may occur to the Grits in the next federal election.
Dion’s Crew, Ignatieff’s Coup
The central loyalists in the Stephane Dion camp are Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay. Kennedy and Findlay were leadership contenders who dropped out to throw their support behind Dion. Both of them, who don’t occupy seats in the House of Commons, are being paid undisclosed amounts for advisers to prepare for the next election.
Findlay, who was near the bottom of the leadership pack, scored significant exposure and accumulated political capital by endorsing Dion early. Some assessed the move as misguided, as it appeared that the two frontrunners (Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae) were better positioned to take the leadership.
Finlay, to her credit, gained credibility and influence by her early endorsement of Dion. She is slated to take on more influential roles within the Party should she win a seat in next election.
Kennedy, who ranked fourth in ballots cast, assumed the role of political kingmaker by bowing out and endorsing Dion in lieu of the top seeded candidates. The support was enough to undermine Bob Rae’s chances. Rae left with minimal comment, visibly agitated, and refused to disclose whom he would support.
Kennedy’s motives were questioned, insofar as some speculation was that he endorsed the weakest link for self-serving motives. Some argued that by doing this, in the likelihood of an eventual collapse, he could return as a top candidate.
Political Vultures Swarming from Above
It is difficult to gauge who was more disappointed in losing the leadership race. Ignatieff left ranking second, and managed to salvage tangible loyalty from angry Liberals. There are many angry Liberals out there. However, Ignatieff could channel that anger by keeping divided loyalties in tact.
While Ignatieff is an intellectual, he shows a consistent pattern of political gaffes. His political savvy is wrested on his aggressive move of sucking media time away from Dion. He speaks clearly, articulately and with philosophical conviction. Where he lacks in charisma, he makes up for in a perception of leadership. By overshadowing Dion publicly, he undermines him privately.
Ignatieff has the backing of a core crowd of mid to right wing Liberals, but lacks political experience, particularly in the trenches of ideological warfare. Dion can deal with the threat of overt challenges from within the Party. How does he deal with the threat of covert challenges from outside of the Party?
The Silent Threat
Enter Bob Rae. It is, in my opinion, Bob Rae who may be more disappointed in the manner in which he was defeated, but more importantly, he is more likely of the two to pose the greater threat.
Much is fought and won behind the scenes as they are in the political field. Rae not only has more political experience but also is more versatile and politically cunning than Ignatieff.
Any politician that can lead a province as Premier to one of its worst records in its history, and become a top contender of another Party must be doing something effectively. Liberals warmed themselves mildly to Rae. They’ll accept him more readily next time.
There will be a next time. In my view, it won’t be Iggy that will pop Dion. It will be Bob Rae.
Ignatieff: Be humane, be Canadian first.
Ignatieff: Forget fanatical loyalties
Hamilton Spectator Mar 3, 2007
Michael Ignatieff says Canadians should abandon loyalties to other nations, such as Israel and Lebanon, and demonstrate to the world that people with divergent views can live in peace.
"Multicultural Canada has the wonderful possibility of soothing, and creating human rights," the deputy Liberal leader said last night at McMaster University.
"That Canada is one of the places that works, rather than exporting hatred ... The biggest problem in the world is not global warming. It is creating political communities that can live with each other and stand their differences. If we can do that, there's no problem we can't solve."
Ignatieff, a former academic giving the opening address at the Global Citizenship Conference, said the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last year, to ferret out safe havens for Hezbollah guerrillas, was a prime example where Canadians let loyalties stymie support for human rights and being part of the global vision that abhors war and violence. He said it distressed him and Canadians should take a lesson from it to "knit connections" between hostile communities.
"If you do have to choose, choose human rights," the Etobicoke MP and author said.
"Do not be a fanatic. Fight fanaticism. Fanaticism is the conviction my people matter more than your people. Let me tell you, there are only victims. A dead Israeli looks pretty much like a dead Lebanese."
Ignatieff, who served on the International Commission on Kosovo, also spoke about the hostility in the former Yugoslavia and how it should not be accepted or supported in Canada.
"I don't want my country to be a centre of fanaticism, whether it's Sri Lankans, Jews, Muslim, Croats, Macedonians or anybody. The one thing about being Canadian is that we are safe from the storm. Thank God. And we should not be contributing to the storm. A belief in human rights means you don't fuel hatred and fanaticism."
More than 400 students from McMaster and the surrounding community are attending the three-day conference. It features workshops, debates and lectures on issues ranging from trade to globalization. It ends tomorrow with a speech by Prince Cedzza Dlamini, a grandson of Nelson Mandela.
On other issues, Ignatieff was asked about his party's decision this week to vote against extending two controversial clauses -- preventive arrests and investigative hearings -- in the Anti-Terrorism Act. Ignatieff, who said Canada should have a terrorist list and punish those who support terrorism, said he voted against not extending the clauses because they might lead to an abuse of freedoms. He said the clauses could be re-introduced in a new bill, but he'd only support them "if compatible with your freedoms."
On the issue of foreign aid, Ignatieff said the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was "a terrible organization." He admitted, however, it has done some good work.
speculation or fate?
Dion's leadership may be heading for palliative care
Don Martin, CanWest News Service March 03, 2007
It's also a tad too quiet in the Liberal backrooms. Instead of the clanking as Dion's positions are dismantled, they should echo the sound of a party platform being hammered together, just in case there's a snap election next month.
Ahhh, yes, the mythical spring election. If Harper can figure out a way to recall all those quotes about being so very satisfied with his current mandate and override his argument that Canada needs fixed election dates to prevent some power-hungry prime minister from dropping the writ just because the polls look promising, good luck to him.
But for Harper to unilaterally seek the Governor General's election blessing for a spring vote would be a flip-flop on a scale dwarfing even Dion's regular mind changes.
It's my view, one that's increasingly in the minority, that an election won't happen.
Still, if Canada votes in a couple months for an unimproved Dion, his leadership is heading for palliative care.
That's why leadership rivals like Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Martha Hall Findlay and Gerard Kennedy are so determined to run in the next election. It's all about the Liberal party's future, they'll argue - specifically theirs as its next leader if Flipper drowns in a blue Conservative sea.
when politics impedes the arts!
Israel's explosive Eurovision entry pushes contest organizers' buttons
The Associated Press HELSINKI, Finland (Mar 3, 2007)
Eurovision Song Contest organizers said Thursday they might ban this year's Israeli entry, "Push the Button," because they say it has an inappropriate political message.
The song, to be performed at the contest in Helsinki in May, overwhelmingly won Israel's competition Wednesday. It's sung in English, French and Hebrew by the group Teapacks and seemingly refers indirectly to Iran's nuclear ambitions and its hardline leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"It's absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition," said Kjell Ekholm, an organizer of the contest. "We'll have all the delegation leaders here in Helsinki next week, and I'm sure we'll talk about this case within the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) group."
The song warns about the dangers of nuclear war, but in an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, band members denied that the song is about Iran, calling that "absurd."
The lyrics of the song refer to "demonic" and "crazy rulers," and say that "he's gonna blow us up to ... kingdom come."
Ahmadinejad's recent anti-Jewish statements have added to fears in Israel that Iran's nuclear program is intended to produce weapons that could be used against that country.
Friday, March 2, 2007
tour; will dion's stock go up?
so far it doesn't add any excitement ... i see nothing but a vague empty box. time will tell ...
Dion starts national tour, says he's about more than just the environment
March 2
DARTMOUTH, N.S. (CP) - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion started a cross-country tour on Friday seemingly aimed at persuading Canadians that he's more than just a one-issue leader focused solely on the environment.
Dion, who has spent much of his first three months as party leader on environmental issues, kicked off the 2½-week tour in the Halifax area, where he rode the ferry across the city's harbour before giving a speech at a community centre in Dartmouth.
While he still touched on the environment, Dion said that's only one issue his party plans to tackle.
"It's not only the environment, it's what we call the three pillars: to bring together economic growth, social justice, environmental sustainability," Dion told reporters after the speech and town hall question-and-answer session.
"They (voters) want to see a more compassionate country, a more competitive country, and a greener country."
Dion continued to cast Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a right-wing ideologue.
He chastised the Conservative government for cutting $1 billion in social programs since their election victory last year, which he said ignores the most vulnerable people in Canada.
Dion said there were no reasons to cut funding for Status of Women Canada, child-care, and adult literacy programs when Harper came to power with a $13-billion surplus.
"Stephen Harper thinks that the government should stick to what he calls its core responsibilities, which to him means that it should play the smallest role possible or no role at all," Dion said in his speech.
"And if that means people get left out - people with lower incomes, or women, or newcomers to Canada, or aboriginals - so be it."
Dion said a Liberal government would stop cuts to the GST, restore provincial child-care funding that was scrapped by the Tories, earmark money in social transfers for post-secondary education, and promote equality for women and aboriginals.
A spokesperson for Harper could not be reached for comment, but Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay sent an e-mail defending the government's record on Status of Women Canada, child care and benefits for low-income Canadians.
"Program funding for women will not be cut and Mr. Dion knows that," said MacKay, who is also the political minister for Nova Scotia and P.E.I.
"The Liberals spent 13 years promising child care. Election after election, they promised a national child care program. Mr. Dion's party never delivered."
Political scientist Nelson Wiseman said while the tour may showcase a broader range of ideas, it's also a chance for Dion to meet voters and Liberals across the country.
"Once you become leader, you have to stake out issues on anything and everything that comes out," said Wiseman, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
"Mind you, my feeling is the reason he's in Halifax is part of building his contacts with the party and grassroots across the country. . . They feel people have to get to know him."
He said that could be difficult for Dion, a former university professor who comes off as "very cerebral."
"Harper's very cerebral, too, but he's a better retail politician," said Wiseman.
A poll released Thursday suggests Liberal support was nine points behind the Conservatives.
Dion has also faced disputes within his caucus, most recently over his opposition to anti-terrorism legislation.
The fledgling Liberal leader is now faced with disciplining MP Tom Wappel, the only party member to openly side with the government's motion to extend the provisions.
Dion brushed aside questions about his popularity and talk of a spring election.
"I am comfortable and convinced that Canadians, when they will be at the ballot box, they will give a strong support to the vision I have expressed," he said.
"About the campaign - look, we don't want an election. We don't think Canadians want an election, but we need to be ready . . . because we never know when this government will rush us to an election."
another nomination/okanagan shuswap: will she fill the quota?
so far, 2, seek the liberal nomination for okanagan shuswap.
who will win the nomination? will she fill the dion quota for women in liberal politics or the uni student?
Vernon councillor chases federal Liberal nomination
RICHARD ROLKE Vernon Morning Star Staff Mar 02 2007
A Vernon city councillor is casting her eye towards politics at a higher level.
Buffy Baumbrough announced Thursday that she is seeking the nomination of the federal Liberals for Okanagan-Shuswap.
“I attend so many meetings where I hear, ‘Where’s the federal government?’ Communities need support,” said Baumbrough, who has managed her own environmental consulting firm and was elected to city council in 2005.
“I would be able to provide a strong voice in Ottawa for our community.”
Baumbrough also decided to let her name stand because she is pleased with the direction leader Stephane Dion is taking the party.
Among her issues of concern is sustainability when it comes to the environment, the economy and social issues.
“My experience at the municipal level has proven that solutions can be implemented as a result of respectful, co-operative and issue-based dialogue,” she said.
The Liberals have placed third behind the Conservatives and the NDP in recent federal elections, but Baumbrough says the party is trying hard to increase its profile locally.
Baumbrough also believes many Okanagan-Shuswap residents are seeking alternatives at the polling station.
“I’ve been hearing that people want something different from their politicians. They’re tired of promises that are never followed through on,” she said.
Baumbrough says she has associated herself with the Liberals since she was a youth, but she only recently joined the party.
Baumbrough vows to remain as a city councillor until the outcome of the next federal election is known.
“I may have to take a leave if an election is called and there was a short, intense campaign. If I don’t win the election, I will continue as a councillor because I love my work as a councillor.”
Also seeking the Liberal nomination is university student Scott Blurton.
---
see:
Okanagan-Shuswap, Blurton seeks liberal nomination
Liberals set to bar men in some ridings in bid to boost female candidates
cnd / afghan prisoners missing; O'Connor: adequate agreement, (so much for human rights)!
Three key prisoners in Afghan abuse probe missing
Mar. 2 2007 CTV.ca News Staff
In the latest development in a probe into allegations of abuse by Canadian soldiers, three key prisoners in the investigation have disappeared while in Afghan custody.
The development, first reported by The Globe and Mail on Friday, represents a serious breach in the prisoner handover agreement between Canadian and Afghan forces and could hinder the investigation into charges that Canadian soldiers physically abused prisoners before handing them over.
The development may also fuel criticism of the prisoner handover agreement and cast doubt on government assurances that all prisoners are properly treated.
Robert Bell, the senior operations manager with the National Investigation Service, told The Globe that investigators are working on the case, but have so far been unable to locate the missing men.
The three prisoners were handed over to Afghan National Police on April 8, 2006, and investigators have been trying to locate them for nearly a month, The Globe reports.
Their disappearance could be due to countless factors, from poor record-keeping to torture or even execution -- a fate that human rights groups say is commonplace in Afghanistan.
The agreement, signed in 2005 by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, stipulates that detainees won't face execution after Canadian troops hand them over. It also requires that "accurate written records accounting for all detainees" be kept by both Canada and Afghanistan.
But Canada has no power to follow up and ensure those provisions are followed once the prisoners have been handed over. Other forces, such as the Dutch, British and Danish, have such stipulations written into their handover agreements.
"We need that sort of provision in our agreement to ensure that detainees are not transferred to be tortured or killed," NDP defence critic Dawn Black told The Globe.
But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has said the agreement is adequate because it sets out that the International Committee of the Red Cross is responsible for the treatment and tracking of the prisoners.
However, the newspaper reports that the agreement doesn't actually require the Red Cross to report to Canada if prisoners aren't being treated properly.
Isabelle Bouchard, a spokesperson for O'Connor, told The Globe in an email that the NIS is currently searching for witnesses wanted in the investigation, including the three missing detainees, "and these things take time."
The NIS is performing a criminal investigation into the abuse allegations against Canadian troops, while Hillier has ordered a board of inquiry to examine detainee handling and treatment.
Two "public interest" probes have also been launched by the Military Police Complaints Commission. One looks at the allegations of abuse against the three missing men, the other looks at whether the handover agreement violates international law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The position of Canada and the U.S. is that prisoners captured in Afghanistan don't fall under the Geneva Convention because they do not fight for a recognized state or wear a uniform. But O'Connor has said that although they don't have official prisoner of war status, they are still entitled to humane treatment.
Amnesty International has launched a court challenge of that position, said Michael Lynk, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Western Ontario.
"The argument, which I think is sound, is that our Charter of Rights follows Canadian troops wherever they may be in the world, and our turning over of Afghan detainees to the Afghan authorities without any kind of appeal process built in for their protection, and turning over to an authority that is likely to torture...that these violate rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada with respect to torture and other countries," Lynk told CTV Newsnet.
The lawsuit, Lynk said, will attempt to determine Canada's obligations towards Afghan detainees under its Geneva Convention responsibilities.
Canada signed on to the Geneva Convention in 1949.
One Million Blogs for Peace
To End the Iraq War
The Concept
Between 20 March 2007 and 20 March 2008 (the fifth year of the war), we will attempt to sign up One Million Blogs for Peace. By signing up, a blogger is stating his or her agreement with The Pledge below. They will then be able to participate in various challenges launched by One Million Blogs for Peace. They will also be listed on this website with a link to their blog.
Bloggers may take The Pledge and sign up before the launch date of 30 March 2007 and will be declared an "Inblogural" (Inaugural Blog) of the movement.
The Pledge
I believe in the immediate withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from the nation of Iraq. I believe in using my blog, in whole or in part, as a tool toward this end.
Who's Eligible
For the official count (toward 1,000,000), a blog must be based in the home country of a nation currently engaged in the Iraq War. As of now, those nations are: Albania, Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Additional blogs from other nations may list themselves as "Support Blogs". While not counting toward the 1,000,000 count, these blogs will be eligible to participate in some of the challenges and will be listed in their own section.
One Million Blogs for Peace
To End the Iraq War
when the press doesn't let up ... ; comments are amusing ..
Leadership losers draw Liberal salaries
But party won't say how much Kennedy and Hall Findlay earn
JANE TABER March 1, 2007 The Globe and Mail
Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay are receiving salaries from the Liberal Party to help prepare for the coming election, but how much they earn is being kept secret.
(amusing to read the responses in the comments)
The lack of transparency is causing concern among some Liberals and leading to speculation that private deals were made because Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Hall Findlay were the two leadership candidates who dropped off the ballot early and threw significant support behind Stéphane Dion. The secrecy is also driving speculation among some Liberals that Ms. Hall Findlay and Mr. Kennedy are earning big salaries.
There are whispers that the two are receiving as much as $15,000 a month, which would be $180,000 a year. Some other Liberals believe their salaries are only about $100,000 a year.
Bob Rae, who placed third in the leadership convention and remained neutral on the last ballot, is not receiving a salary from the party for his work on the election platform. He said that he is spending “a fair bit” of time on it but is still keeping up his consulting, mediating and public-speaking business.
Senator Marie Poulin, the Liberal Party president, would not disclose who is receiving salaries.
“I'm not at liberty to discuss their arrangements, the arrangements of anyone of the Liberal family with you,” she said. “We must exercise complete discretion on the arrangements that we have with all of our members and all of our staff.”
Mr. Kennedy said this week that he was receiving a salary for being Mr. Dion's adviser on election readiness, but said he was “not supposed to” reveal how much he is earning.
“That's pathetic for anyone to characterize it in any such way,” he said of suggestions that a deal had been made with the Dion campaign.
Ms. Hall Findlay, who is travelling across the county consulting on policy ideas for the election platform, said, “Whatever the Liberal Party pays its people, frankly, is private.”
Mr. Rae, Ms. Hall Findlay and Mr. Kennedy are the only three leadership candidates who do not have day jobs as MPs.
They all have debts from their leadership bids. MPs earn $147,700 a year, plus expenses.
When he was Opposition leader, Stephen Harper paid an MP's salary to Conservative Party worker Josée Verner, a defeated candidate in the 2004 election, to help with election readiness in Quebec.
Ms. Verner was elected in 2006 and now is the CIDA minister.
A member of the Liberal Party's national executive said pressure is growing for the issue to be discussed at a national executive meeting this month.
The member, who asked not to be identified, said that he has had calls from other executive members who are concerned about the issue.
He said he has not been told how much the two are earning, and the issue is whether the party is getting “good value for its money.”
Mr. Kennedy would not comment on the speculation that he may be earning more than the nearly $130,000 salary he was paid as Ontario education minister.
He said, however, that his current Liberal job was “not the best offer I had.”
“It's a good position in that it's something I'm doing that is useful,” he said. “I was reluctant to take something on for exactly this reason. ... I had better offers both financially and situationally I'd be able to stay in Toronto ... but there is a job to be done and I'm happy to be part of it.”
He said people can speculate all they want about his salary, adding that he didn't ask for any particular amount.
Mr. Kennedy also said that he turned down an offer to serve on Mr. Dion's transition team.
Ms. Hall Findlay said she gave up “more lucrative opportunities to do this work for the party on this short term basis. ...”
Ms. Poulin said she is confident the arrangements are fair.
“I have to tell you that, as president, I have to make sure that there is fairness in all the system and I'm confident that there is fairness in the system,” she said.
afghan report: military victory impossible
NATO should talk to Taliban because military victory impossible: report
March 1, 2007 CBC News
NATO cannot succeed in Afghanistan with its current number of troops and should enter into diplomatic negotiations with the Taliban to end the conflict there, a former Canadian ambassador to NATO says. (see full report below)
Gordon Smith, currently director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, told CBC News on Thursday that the alliance would need significantly greater numbers of troops to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan through military force.
"I think that if we, or particularly the NATO alliance of which we are a part, maintains the status quo, I don't see in any way that victory is possible," Smith said.
"I just don't see that we are on a winning track."
A U.S. expert told Smith that NATO might be able to win a military victory in Afghanistan if the alliance had closer to about half a million troops.
NATO, which is leading the International Security Assistance Force, a coalition of forces from 37 countries, has about 37,000 troops in Afghanistan. Canada has more than 2,000 soldiers there as part of ISAF.
"With the present level of troops there, we will just never succeed," he said.
Smith, along with a team of experts from across the country, released a report Thursday that recommends that NATO isolate elements of the Taliban from the extremist group al-Qaeda and try to persuade them to join the political process.
The report, Canada in Afghanistan: Is it Working?, suggests that NATO work with the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf to persuade the Taliban to abandon the international holy war fostered by al-Qaeda.
It says the Pakistani government could work with the Pashtuns in northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan to bring stability to Afghanistan. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's dominant ethnic group.
It is in the interests of Pakistan to have the conflict in Afghanistan end, he added.
"It's worth trying because we don't really have better options," Smith said.
"What we have suggested in the report is that ultimately a political resolution is necessary and that means talking to at least parts of the Taliban that aren't prepared to fight to the bitter end."
Smith, deputy minister of foreign affairs from 1994 to 1997, said negotiating with the Taliban is an unpleasant task but he believes it has to be done.
"One has to explore the political solutions, difficult and unpleasant though they may be. I don't have a higher regard for the Taliban than anybody else, but I don't think there is any other alternative but to talk to them."
Smith was the ambassador to the Canadian delegation to NATO from 1985 to 1990.
Full Report: Canada In Afghanistan Is It Working
Accentuating Afghanistan, Harper echoing Bush!
Accentuating the positive
Mar 1st 2007 | OTTAWA The Economist
The government tries to bolster public support for the mission in Afghanistan
CANADIANS are nowadays queasy about having an army that actually fights. Most would prefer their soldiers to do pleasanter things, like doling out food, rebuilding shattered villages or donning blue helmets for traditional UN peacekeeping. That may be why, when asked about support for the NATO mission to Afghanistan, where Canadian troops have done more fighting than rebuilding since being sent to Kandahar province last year, almost half say they want the mission abandoned and the 2,500 troops home.
This is anathema to Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister who in his first year in office has beefed up the defence budget and extended the Afghan mission by two years to 2009. Echoing America's president, George Bush, Mr Harper has said repeatedly that Canada will not “cut and run” but stay in Afghanistan until the job is done.
But as the leader of a minority government, Mr Harper cannot afford to ignore public opinion, especially when the voices calling loudest for retreat come from the vote-rich province of Quebec. So when this week his government presented Parliament with an Afghan progress report, it concentrated on the C$1 billion ($860m)—since boosted by an extra C$200m—the government has pledged to spend on microfinance, education, rural infrastructure and other development projects in Afghanistan by 2011. Afghanistan is now the biggest recipient of Canadian foreign aid.
Though the report could hardly avoid all mention of combat in what has become Canada's largest military deployment since the Korean war in the 1950s, its language was mild. There was at any rate no mention of the “detestable murderers and scumbags” whom the bellicose chief of defence staff, General Rick Hillier, once said were Canada's target in Afghanistan. Nor did the report repeat a recent comment by Gordon O'Connor, the defence minister, that Canadian troops were in Afghanistan in order to exact “retribution” for the 2001 terrorist attack on New York, in which nearly 3,000 people died, including 25 Canadians. And though development spending was laid out in detail, no total was given for the cost of the military engagement, now entering its sixth year. According to a very conservative estimate by the government last October, this could exceed C$3 billion by 2009.
Focusing on the nation-building while glossing over the killing is probably the best way to extract maximum support from combat-shy Canadians. Mentioning the 37-country coalition in Afghanistan also helps, because it reminds the many Canadians who detest George Bush that they are not the only ones fighting alongside the Americans.
But other developments threaten to push opinion in the opposite direction. Reports disclosed via the freedom of information law by Amir Attaran, a law professor in Ottawa, and made public last month, suggest that Afghan prisoners have been beaten while in Canadian custody. This has stirred memories of the torture and murder of a Somali youth by Canadian troops in 1993. That led to the disbanding of an elite regiment. The alleged beatings in Afghanistan are now the subject of three separate official inquiries.
Also troubling is a case filed in the Federal Court last week by two human-rights groups alleging that Canadian troops are breaking both national and international law by handing prisoners over to the Afghan army, which has a record of torture. Unlike other NATO members, such as Britain and the Netherlands, Canada did not obtain the right to check on the welfare of transferred detainees. It simply gives their names to the International Red Cross. The independent Military Police Complaints Commission is to investigate the affair.
But it is the rising number of Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan that is most likely to determine whether voters eventually choose to see the job through. Since the first troops arrived in 2002, 44 soldiers and a diplomat have lost their lives. The most recent deaths were recorded in November. But with analysts predicting a new offensive by Taliban insurgents when the snow melts this spring, the already wavering home front may be further tested.
Student Opportunity, International Polar Year Expedition
Students on Ice - International Polar Year Expedition Series (2007-09)
The Students on Ice - International Polar Year Youth Expeditions series has been endorsed by the IPY Joint Committee as a prominent and valued component of the IPY program. These special IPY-themed voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic offer once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to over 500 youth to explore the Polar regions!
These unique educational expeditions designed for international high school and university youth. Participants will travel together with teams of polar scientists, experts and educators. The ice-strengthened ship-based expeditions will be unparalleled platforms for Polar and Environmental Education and outreach for the International Polar Year. 
Upcoming Expeditions
Arctic Expedition
(August 2nd - August 17th, 2007)
More information >>
International Polar Year Expedition Series
Antarctic Expedition
(December 26th, 2007 - January 8th, 2008)
More information >>
Global Youth Fellowship, 20,000 cash award; Canadian grant fondation!
An independent, Canadian grant making foundation, The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation is dedicated to the development of sound and innovative public policies.
What's New
We are pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2007 Global Youth Fellowships. Targeted towards emerging, young Canadian
leaders who demonstrate potential to enhance Canada's role on the world stage, the Fellowships will provide successful candidates with a cash award of $20,000 as well as other forms of support. Up to 8 Fellowships will be awarded in 2007. The application deadline is Friday, April 20, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. EST. ...
The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation is pleased to announce the 2007 call for applications for the Global Youth Fellowship. This initiative is intended to complement the grants we award through the Foundation’s Global Citizenship Programme. The Global Youth Fellowships are targeted towards emerging, young Canadian leaders who demonstrate potential to enhance Canada’s role on the world stage. The Fellowships will provide successful candidates with a cash award of 20,000 dollars as well as other forms of support.
To be eligible for consideration, applicants must be Canadian citizens or landed immigrants between 24 – 35 years of age with previous international experience – paid or volunteer. They also need to demonstrate a sustained commitment to international issues through studies, career choices and volunteer activities.
For bios of the 2006 Global Youth Fellows, please visit our website.
Application Deadline: Friday, April 20, 2007 by 5:00 p.m. EST
Application form and guidelines as well as more information about the eligibility criteria can be found on our website at: http://www.gordonfn.org.
We welcome your help in circulating this call for applications as broadly as possible.
Inuit seeks return of artifacts!
The hall of repatriation at the Greenland National Museum and Archivesholds some of the 35,000 objects repatriated from Denmark to Greenland.
The Peary Land umiaqis the largest object being repatriated from Denmark
Nunavut Inuit plan return of artifacts
“Repatriation has played a part in the cultural healing”
February 23, 2007 JANE GEORGE Nunatsiaq News
The Inuit Heritage Trust is looking at how Inuit artifacts now stored in museums around the world will be repatriated or returned to Nunavut when the territory finally gets its own heritage centre.
Last week, several board members and staff from the Inuit Heritage Trust visited Nuuk, Greenland to attend an international conference on repatriation that drew delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Africa, Finland and Norway.
William Beveridge, the executive director of the Trust, said he was inspired to learn how other groups, such as the Maori, have museums that speak to the past and the future.
“They’re working very hard to repatriate their cultural heritage. That’s not just their language, but their cultural beliefs and their practices,” he said.
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa has 1.3 million visitors per year, many of whom are Maori.
“What really opened my eyes was the Maori people saying that it’s an open door for museums to repatriate,” Beveridge said. “They can return artifacts, but they can also help.”
Gordon L. Pullar, a Kodiak Island Sugpiaq who works at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, talked about a successful effort to return to the village of Larsen Bay the remains of more than 1,000 people from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
“Repatriation has played a part in the cultural healing that has occurred as pride in identity is restored,” he said.
Eeva-Kristiina Harlin of Siida, a Saami museum in northern Finland, described the difficulties facing a project involving three Saami museums in Finland, Sweden and Norway, which are working together to repatriate Saami material.
The vast majority of Saami material now lies outside the Saami homeland, she said.
All over the world, explorers, anthropologists and other visitors once walked away with cultural objects and sometimes human remains that belong to indigenous peoples.
Disputes over who owns these materials are common. Sometimes these disputes result in conflicting claims between indigenous communities or between the museums and private institutions that hold them.
Greenland has successfully repatriated 35,000 objects from Denmark. The Greenland National Museum and Archives decided to host the international conference on repatriation on the basis of what Daniel Thorleifsen, the museum’s director, called a “good understanding” between Denmark and Greenland.
Beveridge said he feels the Inuit Heritage Trust has good working relations with museums in southern Canada.
“Once we do get our Nunavut cultural centre we’ll find out how well our relationships will be. The way it’s going now, it will be very positive,” he said.
In early March, representatives from every region in Nunavut are to meet in Rankin Inlet to talk about repatriation and advise the Inuit Heritage Trust on how to repatriate the thousands of Inuit objects held elsewhere.
“We want to have guidance from the elders on how to handle these artifacts and human remains,” Beveridge said.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
traffic through Salmon Arm
The Friday AM , our weekly independent community paper for Salmon Arm and area:
comments on local traffic:
"... Trans Canada averages 11,000 to 16,000 vehicles per day, ...", through salmon arm!
PQ election, homophobia ! (unreal this day and age, the bashing)
Boisclair says homophobia won't affect his campaign
March 1, 2007
MONTREAL (CP) - A controversial radio host has dragged homosexuality into the open in the Quebec election campaign after declaring Andre Boisclair's Parti Quebecois looks like a "club of fags."
Boisclair, the openly gay PQ leader, angrily declared Thursday that Quebecers will decide whether homosexuality is an issue worthy of consideration.
The PQ leader was asked if homophobia is posing a problem for his struggling campaign leading to the March 26 provincial election.
"You know what? I'll allow Quebecers to answer that question," said Boisclair, who paused at length before his answer.
"I know Quebecers stand for equality and freedom. If there are people who want to fight that issue in this election campaign it won't be me they'll have to answer to. It's millions of Quebecers who expect more justice in Quebec."
In an interview two weeks ago with a PQ candidate, radio host Louis Champagne of CKRS in the separatist heartland of Saguenay mused that local factory workers might not like gay candidates and declared the PQ resembles "un club de tapettes."
"Tapette" is the French equivalent in Quebec of "fag."
"In Jonquiere, when you show up with another homosexual, listen, aren't you going to face the question, 'Is the Parti Quebecois a club of fags?' " Champagne said.
In addition to forcing Boisclair to address the highly personal topic, Champagne effectively outed local PQ candidate Sylvain Gaudreault, who publicly addressed his sexuality Wednesday.
"For those who don't know it, I am homosexual," Gaudreault said at a PQ meeting. "And contrary to what some people think, I don't believe factory workers will be scared to vote for me."
Gaudreault, who is running in the riding of Jonquiere, was livid.
"I find Louis Champagne's remarks totally contemptuous toward factory workers," he said.
"I really don't understand why these workers wouldn't want to vote for Sylvain Gaudreault."
Gilbert Cerat, a spokesman for station-owner Corus Quebec, said company officials will review the matter but any decision would wait until next week.
"It's worth evaluating, to see exactly what he said," Cerat said in an interview.
Champagne has been absent from the airwaves this week, but Cerat said it is not due to disciplinary action but to a flu bug. Cerat said Champagne is on sick leave for the rest of the week and will meet with company officials next week.
Champagne could not be reached for comment.
The hot topic of sexual politics knocked Boisclair's other declaration of the day off the agenda.
The leader of the pro-independence party said there's no limit to the number of referendums that could be called if the separatists were to lose a third vote on making Quebec an independent country.
"I'll never declare that an idea is dead," he said.
Champagne, the dean of Quebec shock-radio hosts, broadcasts from Saguenay, normally a PQ stronghold about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City. However, the Liberals already hold two seats in the region and they are expected to make further gains along with the Action democratique du Quebec.
Champagne has a long history of complaints from listeners to Canada's broadcast regulator over coarse and vulgar language and personal attacks.
He's one of the last shock radio hosts who have been in vogue in the province in recent years but who have been shut down in hails of controversy, lawsuits and CRTC rulings. One of them, Andre Arthur, has gone on to be a federal MP for the Quebec City region.
Champagne has bragged he's been sued dozens of times. In one interview on Tele-Quebec, he estimated he's faced down $60 million in legal action.
In the recent broadcast, Champagne suggested workers at the local aluminum plants aren't ready to vote for gays.
"Is he saying on the radio that people in Saguenay and Lac-St-Jean are more homophobic than other people elsewhere in Quebec?" Boisclair said.
"Homophobia exists, but I feel that these words are very insulting for the people of Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean."
Boisclair said he hasn't personally experienced homophobia.
"I grew up in an environment where I had caring parents and fantastic friends."
Boisclair spent most of Thursday in the provincial capital and unveiled his education program aimed at lowering the dropout rate.
He also said he wants to encourage young gay boys, who have a high suicide rate in Quebec, to stay in school.
Liberal Premier Jean Charest was in Montmagny, south of Quebec City, where he announced his plan for regional development. He noted that his government's recent budget provides $825 million in regional economic support.
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont was campaigning in the Montreal area and criticized Charest's school reforms. Dumont called for a standardized report card that all parents can understand.
Japan's denial of the sex trade (they are comfort stations)!
Japan's Abe: No Proof of WWII Sex Slaves
KOZO MIZOGUCHI 03.01.07
Japan's nationalist prime minister denied Thursday that the country's military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, casting doubt on a past government apology and jeopardizing a fragile detente with his Asian neighbors.
The comments by Shinzo Abe, a member of a group of lawmakers pushing to roll back a 1993 apology to the sex slaves, were his clearest statement as prime minister on military brothels known in Japan as "comfort stations."
Historians say some 200,000 women - mostly from Korea and China - served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
But Abe, who since taking office in September has promoted patriotism in Japan's schools and a more assertive foreign policy, told reporters there was no proof the women were forced into prostitution.
"The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion," Abe said.
His remarks contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992 that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels.
The documents, which are backed up by accounts from soldiers and victims, said Japanese authorities set up the brothels in response to uncontrolled rape sprees by invading Japanese soldiers in East Asia.
In 1993, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized to the victims of sex slavery, though the statement did not meet demands by former "comfort women" that it be approved by parliament. Two years later, the government set up a compensation fund for victims, but it was based on private donations - not government money - and has been criticized as a way for the government to avoid owning up to the abuse.
The mandate for the fund is to expire March 31.
Abe's comments were certain to rile South Korea and China, which accuse Tokyo of failing to fully atone for wartime atrocities. Abe's government has been recently working to repair relations with Seoul and Beijing.
The statement came just hours after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun marked a national holiday honoring the anniversary of a 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule by urging Tokyo to come clean about its past.
Roh also referred to hearings held by the U.S. House of Representatives last month on a resolution urging Japan to "apologize for and acknowledge" the imperial army's use of sex slaves during the war.
"The testimony reiterated a message that no matter how hard the Japanese try to cover the whole sky with their hand, there is no way that the international community would condone the atrocities committed during Japanese colonial rule," Roh said.
Dozens of people also rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the anniversary, lining up dead dogs' heads on the ground with pieces of paper in their mouths listing names of Koreans who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese during its 1910-45 colonial rule. Protest organizers said the animals were slaughtered at a restaurant; dogs are regularly consumed as food in Korea.
Roh's office said late Thursday it did not immediately have a direct response to the Japanese leader's remarks. In Beijing, calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry seeking comment on the remarks were not immediately returned.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would not comment on Abe's statement. "I'll let the Japanese political system deal with that," he said.
The sex slave question has been a cause celebre for nationalist politicians and scholars in Japan who claim the women were professional prostitutes and were not coerced into servitude by the military.
Before Abe spoke Thursday, a group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers discussed their plans to push for an official revision of Kono's 1993 apology.
Nariaki Nakayama, chairman of the group of about 120 lawmakers, sought to play down the government's involvement in the brothels by saying it was similar to a school that hires a company to run its cafeteria.
"Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs, and set prices," he said.
"Where there's demand, businesses crop up ... but to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark," he said. "This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth ... for the sake of Japanese honor."
Sex slave victims, however, say they still suffer wounds - physical and psychological - from the war.
Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a sex slave in Taiwan.
"The Japanese government must not run from its responsibilities," said Lee, who has long campaigned for Japanese compensation. "I want them to apologize. To admit that they took me away, when I was a little girl, to be a sex slave. To admit that history."
AP writer Burt Herman contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.
Partial victory; for same sex couples! a beginning!
Epic fight for gay rights ends with bittersweet win on CPP survivor benefits
Mar1 2007
OTTAWA (CP) - What has been cast as the last great battle for same-sex equality ended Thursday with a partial victory in Canada's highest court.
While the Supreme Court said same-sex partners widowed before Jan. 1, 1998, were wrongly denied Canada Pension Plan survivor benefits for years, it limited retroactive compensation to one year. The judges ruled 7-0 against extending those payments all the way back to 1985 when equality rights took effect under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Instead, the judgment makes any same-sex partner widowed after 1985 eligible for CPP survivor benefits averaging about $500 a month, plus 12-months' arrears.
That's far short of the compensation sought by about 1,500 claimants or their estates who fought a class-action battle.
The high court essentially said that Ottawa, unless it has acted in bad faith, can't be asked to reach far back in time to legally apply a modern-day understanding of rights.
"Achieving an appropriate balance between fairness to individual litigants and respecting the legislative role of Parliament may mean that charter remedies will be directed more toward government action in the future and less toward the correction of past wrongs," says the judgment.
The high court struck down part of a law passed in 2000 that granted CPP survivor benefits only to gay partners widowed after Jan. 1, 1998, calling it an unjust breach of equality rights. However, the ruling gives the federal government credit for what it calls a "good-faith" effort to update its laws.
The judgment is a mixed victory for claimants who fought for compensation back to 1985 after being excluded until 2000. They now stand to receive about $18,000 to $30,000 each.
For Albert McNutt, 56, it was a bittersweet victory. His partner, Gary Pask, died in 1993. McNutt was denied survivor benefits under CPP at the time because gay couples weren't legally recognized.
That changed in 2000 after Parliament was forced to update a raft of laws following a high court ruling the year before. It declared it unconstitutional to bar gay couples from collecting family benefits.
"They blatantly discriminated against gays and lesbians over the years," McNutt said.
"I wouldn't say it's totally 100 per cent fair," McNutt, who travelled from Truro, N.S., to be at the Supreme Court, said of the judgment. "But I'm happy with taking what we have. This is the last step of the journey for me, anyway. But I would wish for more."
In Quebec, which is not affected by Thursday's ruling because it runs its own parallel pension plan, gay survivors got much more.
The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled on a similar case in 2002. It struck down a restriction that paid survivor benefits only to same-sex spouses whose partners had died after 1999 - when many provincial laws were changed to recognize gay couples.
But the Quebec court went farther, saying that recognition of same-sex spouses should extend back to 1982 when the charter was first adopted.
Thursday's high court ruling explored the extent to which Ottawa is retroactively liable for wrongs committed as gay rights evolved. The federal government argued that a ruling for the claimants could open a floodgate of similar discrimination claims dating back to when the charter took effect.
Lawyers for the federal government argued the case could set a precedent for a host of other social programs. They were also concerned about the effect on Parliament's power to say when its laws take effect.
The judges were apparently listening.
A high court ruling that paved the way for same-sex benefits in 1999 "declares what the Constitution requires," says the judgment co-written by Justices Louis LeBel and Marshall Rothstein.
"It does not give rise to an automatic right to every government benefit that might have been paid out had the court always interpreted the Constitution in accordance with its present-day understanding of it."
Justice Michel Bastarache agreed in general terms with his high-court colleagues, but reminded them in separate reasons that Ottawa only took such "good-faith" action when its hand was forced.
"To put it bluntly, (equality rights) did not extend to same-sex couples until this court said it did."
The high court has been "very deferential" to Parliament of late, said Doug Elliott, a renowned gay-rights lawyer who acted for the claimants. Thursday's ruling is a case of the court trying to both right a constitutional wrong but also limit Ottawa's liability, he said.
Total costs of rewarding CPP survivor benefits retroactive to 1985 were estimated by the government's chief actuary at about $100 million, Elliott said.
The more limited judgment will likely cost between $50 million to $75 million, he said.
Late legendary gay-rights activist George Hislop launched the class action years ago. The crusade began when he was denied CPP survivor benefits after his partner of 28 years, Ron Shearer, died in 1986. Shearer had paid into the plan for decades.
Hislop didn't live long enough to see the high court rule. He died in October 2005 at 78, still fighting the federal government as it challenged lower-court judgments all the way up to the Supreme Court.
"He was a remarkable individual," Elliott said. "He was still fighting for gay rights from the grave. He'd be thrilled to be here today."
Elliott has been to the Supreme Court repeatedly, arguing almost every major gay equal-rights case.
"We're just about done, I think."
In future, this latest judgment could help widowed same-sex partners fight arbitrary cut-off dates for other benefit programs such as private pension plans, he said.
Openly gay New Democrat MP Bill Siksay said Thursday's ruling is cause to celebrate - even if the high court let Ottawa off easy.
"Governments have had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards equality for gay and lesbian Canadians," he said in an interview. "And I'm not going to forget that we've had to fight long and hard for all of the human-rights gains we've made."
polls, green going up; dion slipping ...
Tories widening lead over Liberals: poll
March 1, 2007 CBC News
A new poll suggests Stephen Harper's Conservatives are surging ahead of the Liberals, even in the crucial province of Ontario, where Liberals have long held an advantage.
The Decima Research poll released Thursday showed the Conservatives held 36 per cent support nationally, which is similar to the Tories' numbers when they gained power just over a year ago.
Support for the Liberals fell to 27 per cent, well below the mid-30s the party held shortly after electing Stéphane Dion leader in December.
In Ontario, the Tories surged to 40 per cent support this week, compared with 32 per cent for the Liberals, 15 per cent for the NDP and 13 per cent for the Green party.
The survey of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted between Feb. 22 and Feb. 26, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The numbers suggest the prime minister and his party are succeeding in convincing women, urban and Ontario voters that the Tories are a moderate rather than hard-right government, Decima CEO Bruce Anderson said Thursday.
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"We are now seeing them pull ahead of the Liberals among those groups that have been really resistant to the Conservatives for some period of time now," Anderson told the CBC's Don Newman.
Greens gaining, Bloc flagging
The poll also suggested the Green party continues to show momentum across Canada, with 13 per cent support nationally, tied with the NDP for the first time in Decima's polling.
"We've seen for some time that the Green party has been slowly but surely accumulating support across the spectrum," Anderson said.
The poll recorded 35 per cent support for the Bloc Québécois in Quebec, down significantly from its numbers in the run-up to the last election, when the Bloc was regularly closer to 50 per cent support in its home province, Decima said.
"It seems more the case that they can find little to rally anti-Ottawa emotion with," Anderson said. "And so those voters in Quebec who are nationalist but not separatist feel free to consider their other options, which now decidedly include the Green party."
The Liberals followed the Bloc in Quebec with 23 per cent, with the Green party at 13 per cent, and the NDP with seven per cent.
In an average of the last three weekly polls, the Conservatives have 33 per cent, the Liberals 30 per cent, the NDP 14 per cent, the Bloc nine per cent and the Greens 11 per cent.
hillier attacked; poor boy feels he has been abused
Hillier insulted by political 'prop' label: Liberal MP's comments worse than being shot at, top general says
The Ottawa Citizen 2007.03.01
Canada's outspoken top soldier says he's been shot at, targeted by suicide bombers and called every name in the book. But none of that was worse than being called a political "prop" by a Liberal politician.
Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, has fired back at Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre for levelling that accusation against him two weeks ago.
Gen. Hillier drew Mr. Coderre's ire after he referred to Liberal cuts to defence spending in the 1990s as a "decade of darkness" during a speech to hundreds at a major military symposium in Ottawa. "I never thought he would become a prop for the Conservative party," an angry Mr. Coderre fumed afterwards.
At the time, Gen. Hillier said he was not taking sides politically.
But in an interview with the CPAC television network that was broadcast yesterday, Gen. Hillier was asked again about what he thought about being called a "prop" by the Liberals.
"I've been shot at. People have attempted to blow me up. I had a suicide bomber targeted against me when I was the commander in Afghanistan. And I've been called every name in the book, I'm certain," Gen. Hillier replied. "I don't think I've ever been so insulted as to be called a prop for a political party."
Gen. Hillier reiterated the purpose of his speech at the Conference of Defence Association annual meeting was not to pick sides politically, but to talk about the state of the Canadian Forces Indeed, he has used the same "decade of darkness" metaphor in the past.
"I'm not a politician. I'm a soldier and I call things the way I see them, factually, and I try not to put the slant on that," Gen. Hillier added. "I do that because I think the government of Canada needs that honesty from the chief of the defence staff."
The Liberals cut defence spending by nearly one-quarter in the 1990s, but in 2005 infused $13 billion into the defence budget, the largest increase in military spending in a decade.
The Conservatives have pledged an additional $5 billion over the next five years, and announced $17 billion in large equipment purchases for the Forces.