OPP back off! Free all First Nations Political Prisoners Now!

War in Heaven
March 20, 2008 By Jim Miles
Original Source: Palestine Chronicle

War in Heaven – The Arms Race in Outer Space.
Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath.
New Press, N.Y., 2007.

In this short volume, Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath provide a sharp and concise analysis of the American nuclear weapons industry and its many ramifications for society and the peoples of the world in general. While they see the big picture, they ably document the details of theory and practice of the (mostly) American push towards bigger and better (deadlier and more accurate) nuclear armaments that accompany the American push towards global dominance.

IRAQ: Five Years, And Counting
Analysis by Dahr Jamail

WASHINGTON, Mar 18 (IPS) - Devastation on the ground and largely held Iraqi opinion contradicts claims by U.S. officials that the situation in Iraq has improved towards the fifth anniversary of the invasion Mar. 20.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, during a surprise visit to Iraq on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavour".

According to the group Just Foreign Policy, more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion and occupation, now entering its sixth year. A survey by British polling agency ORB estimates the number of dead at more than 1.2 million.

New allegations, same old secret trials
by Matthew Behrens, republished from Rabble.CA
February 26, 2008

In typical government style, a series of rehashed ancient suspicions, new unfounded allegations, and outright lies against secret trial detainees Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat, and Adil Charkaoui were "released" last Friday afternoon. Conveniently, there was little or no opportunity for informed journalists to put things into perspective and get beyond the fear mongering the allegations are meant to inspire.

A voice for missing women; Thursday ceremony spotlights hundreds of murdered natives
By Rachel Punch, The Sudbury Star

Savannah Trudeau often doesn't feel safe when she's alone and, as a young aboriginal woman, those feelings are justified.

Hundreds of First Nations women - including about 30 in Ontario - have been murdered or simply vanished in the last few decades.

The following statement was delivered by a member of Sudbury Against War and Occupation at a recent event in Sudbury honouring the memory of indigenous women murdered and gone missing in Canada.

Good afternoon.

My name is Clarissa Lassaline and I’m involved with a group of Sudbury folks firmly opposed to war and occupation. The fact that Canada exists as an occupation of First Nations Lands has become increasingly important to our thinking about indigenous struggles and white settler solidarity and responsibility.

http://www.sudbury24.ca/media/1064/Group_gathers_to_pay_respects_to_miss...

Sudbury residents pay their respects to missing, murdered Indigenous women

BY LAUREL MYERS

Spy watchdog fingers CSIS on torture data
Wed, February 13, 2008
By JIM BRONSKILL, Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- An investigation by the watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence Service concludes the spy agency "uses information obtained by torture" -- perhaps its bluntest assessment of CSIS's intelligence-gathering practices to date.

For Immediate Release
Sudbury Residents Honour Indigenous Women Murdered or Missing in Canada

SUDBURY, ONTARIO, February 14, 2008 – Hundreds of Indigenous women in Canada have been murdered or have gone missing over the last 20 years. All too often, the authorities have done little or nothing in response.

Rally supports U.S. couple; Pair fled to Canada after man deserted rather than return to Iraq
By Rachel Punch, reposted from The Sudbury Star

About 20 people gathered at a rally in Sudbury on Saturday in an effort to help U.S. Iraq war resisters, like deserter Michael Espinal and his partner, Jennifer Harrison, stay in Canada. Espinal and Harrison, who is expecting a child in April, have been living in Sudbury since the fall, when the couple fled Florida so Espinal would not have to serve a second tour of duty in Iraq.

Marleau urged to reject security measure
By Laura Stradiotto, reposted from The Sudbury Star

Members and supporters of Sudbury Against War and Occupation are pressuring Sudbury MP Diane Marleau to vote against a bill they say is discriminatory.

Earlier this afternoon, 12 or 15 people -- members and supporters of Sudbury Against War and Occupation (SAWO) and other members of the community -- gathered in front of the office of Liberal MP Diane Marleau to demand that she vote against Bill C-3. A couple of members of the group presented our basic objections to this legislation, in English and French. These objections can be found in our media release from earlier in the week. One individual who had sent a letter to Marleau shared some of the content of a response she had received and talked about why she found it unsatisfactory. Another member read a statement against C-3 from the local representative of the Canadian Labour Congress, who was out of town and so could not attend herself. Here is the text of the statement:

On Friday, January 25th, at 1 pm, members and supporters of Sudbury Against War and Occupation (SAWO) and other members of the community will gather on the northeast corner of Elgin and Elm outside the office of Diane Marleau, Liberal MP for Sudbury, to seek an answer to the question of whether she supports two-tiered justice, indefinite detention, inadequate due process, and deportation to torture, or if she will stand up against them.

Omar Khadr and Guantánamo: Canada's Glaring Double Standards on Torture
by ANDY WORTHINGTON, CounterPunch, January 19, 2008.

How humiliating.

The story begins with the shameful case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was kidnapped by US agents as he changed planes in New York in 2002, and rendered to Syria, where he was tortured for a year on behalf of the Americans before being released.

Mr. Arar -- who was awarded millions of dollars in compensation by the Canadian government in January 2007, but has yet to receive even an apology from the US administration -- had been wrongly fingered by Canadian intelligence, and his case his one of many chilling examples of the damage caused by failed intelligence in the American's program of "extraordinary rendition."