Ms Fogal on the Corbett Report Show

Ms. Fogal, thank you once again for joining me on The Corbett Report this week. The mp3 recording of our interview is now up on my website and can be accessed directly here:

http://www.corbettreport.com/index.php?i=Documentation&ii=105

Thank you once again for your time and good luck to you in all your future endeavours.

Regards,
James Corbett
corbettreport.com

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

The HPV vaccine, one year later

From the Canadian Women’s Health Network

In June 2007, the Canadian Women’s Health Network published the policy paper, “HPV, Vaccines, and Gender: Policy Considerations,” to raise questions and concerns about plans to begin mass vaccination programs against infections with some types of the human papilloma virus (HPV) among schoolgirls in Canada. The last sentence of the paper reads: “At this point in time, there are more questions than answers.”

One year later, there are perhaps even more questions than answers. Nevertheless, provinces and territories have either started school-based vaccination programs, or plan to begin them in the fall of 2008. Thus, parents across the country will be faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to allow their daughters to be vaccinated. And there remain concerns that they will too often lack the full information needed to give authentic informed consent.

We continue to ask: What’s the rush when cervical cancer rates are low and have already decreased substantially through the provision of Pap screening programs? Why was the vaccine campaign launched by the Minister of Finance in a budget speech even before the group set up to harmonize immunization policies in Canada issued its recommendations—a report that we still await? Why spend $300 million for a vaccine when the funding could be applied to effective, holistic sexual and reproductive health programs? In fact, we are concerned that the vaccine may actually divert resources from improving Pap screening so that all provinces might have an organized program.

Research has shown that most sexually active people will experience an HPV infection, but that 80 to 90% of these will clear spontaneously within two years. Only four types of the virus are covered by the vaccine—two of which are associated with the development of cervical cancer—and we still don’t know how long protection lasts. So, even those vaccinated will continue to need Pap tests as they get older.

The criticism that has been hurled at those raising questions about the vaccination program, including those speaking on behalf of the CWHN, has been quite surprising. This is especially true for the CWHN authors of the commentary “Human papillomavirus, vaccines and women’s health: questions and cautions,” published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in August 2007. We are certainly not the only ones asking questions. In fact, the 56 experts on vaccines and sexual health convened by Health Canada in 2005 to review the vaccine approval process also wanted answers to these questions before they recommended approval of a vaccination program. Unfortunately, they have been fairly silent since then.

For voicing our concerns at CWHN, we have been called irresponsible and even lumped in with fundamentalist groups opposed to the vaccine for moral reasons (worried that the vaccine will promote promiscuous behaviour) and with others who are opposed to vaccines in general. For the record, we at the CWHN are not opposed to the HPV vaccine in itself. Rather, we are opposed to a mass vaccination program at this time in the absence of sufficient long-term evidence of its effectiveness, and in the absence of public debate and full, unbiased information.

A major source of public information on the HPV vaccine has been the media. But, with a few exceptions, media coverage has not provided the full story and, in many cases, has instead misinformed the public. Gardasil is not a “vaccine against cancer,” and we do not now know if it will “prevent 70% of cervical cancers” as has been published in the national media. Yet, this misinformation, which is based more on clever marketing by the manufacturer, Merck Frosst, than on good journalism, continues to appear. The exceptions, for example in the Globe and Mail and the CBC, are investigative reports about the lobbying by Merck Frosst that took place prior to the federal government’s $300 million announcement, and articles that go into detail about the available scientific evidence, as well as articles critical of the government process to approve the vaccine and its failure to provide adequate public information.

In PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, uptake of the vaccination programs which began last September has been high (around 80%), but in Ontario only 50% of girls eligible for the vaccine have actually received it so far. School-based vaccination programs usually have very high uptake rates, and the low rate in Ontario, where most of the investigative media reports were published, may be because parents have decided to wait until further evidence is known.

The governments of Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba all recently announced they will be unrolling vaccination programs in the fall of 2008. Without the usual National Immunization Strategy to guide provinces in the implementation of a vaccination program (the Strategy was not used in this case), the authorities in Quebec have decided to provide only two doses of the vaccine to Grade 4 girls, then a third shot when the girls reach Grade 9. The vaccine is approved for use in three doses within six months, so Quebec’s plan would be an “off-label” (unapproved) use of the vaccine. A clinical trial is currently underway to evaluate this method, which may or may not prove to be effective in the long term, but it has not yet concluded.

HPV testing is another area of study. The BC Cancer Agency is conducting the HPV FOCAL Study to determine if a test for HPV in women can replace the usual Pap test, allowing women to be screened less frequently. The study is expected to last from two to four years. There are also studies examining whether or not boys should be vaccinated. While it may be shown that vaccinating boys is not an effective method of HPV prevention, the evidence is not yet available. In the meantime, women and girls are being vaccinated and are certainly bearing a disproportionate burden in the prevention of HPV infection.

Some groups are encouraging governments to put vaccination programs on hold through calls for moratoria, such as in Quebec where plans are in place to begin vaccinations this fall (see sidebar). Beyond our borders, a similar campaign for a moratorium on the HPV vaccine is underway in Spain. And the government of Minnesota in the United States did put its HPV vaccine program on hold to take the time to adequately prepare for implementation, including properly educating the public and determining the sustainability of funding in the long term. In the meantime, the Minnesota government has stated it will continue to depend on its effective Pap screening program for the prevention of cervical cancer.

In Canada, it’s not too late for governments to review the decision to implement mass vaccination programs—to wait until more questions are answered, or at the very least until they have provided a comprehensive public education program. Provincial and territorial governments also need to plan for when the federal government’s contribution of $300 million runs out two years from now, how they will sustain such a costly program. In the meantime, governments could focus on improving Pap screening and sex education—for both girls and boys. Research may later show that the HPV vaccine does help prevent cervical cancer, but for now the data do not merit a mass vaccination program.

As we’ve said from the beginning of this story, the CWHN is not anti-vaccine—not even anti HPV vaccine. But we are critical of how this vaccine was introduced and will continue to keep our eyes on this ball. We encourage others to keep asking questions too and to demand the public education on the HPV vaccine necessary for parents and girls to make informed decisions before the next round of vaccinations takes place.

Quebec groups call for a moratorium on HPV vaccination campaign

By Nathalie Parent
>From the Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances

In September 2007, the Quebec government announced that it would launch a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign for girls to begin in the 2008 school year, joining other Canadian provinces that have announced similar vaccination programs. The details of the campaign, with an estimated cost of $70 million over three years, were announced in April by the Quebec government stating that the vaccine will be administered to nine-year-old girls in Grade 4 and 14-year-old girls in Grade 9.

The campaign was criticized as soon as it was announced in September, in particular by the Réseau québécois d’action pour la santé des femmes (RQASF) [Quebec women's health network], which called for a moratorium, a position supported by the Regroupement des maisons de jeunes du Québec [Organization of Quebec youth centres], Women and Health Protection and the Canadian Women’s Health Network. The groups urged that the millions of dollars earmarked for the campaign be directed toward prevention and toward improving access to health care for women, in particular for adolescent girls.

In November, the call for a moratorium was taken up by more than thirty groups and individuals representing a variety of interests at an all-day event, “Journée d’étude sur le vaccin contre le VPH,” organized by the Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN) to examine and discuss the vaccination program. Even after discussions with the public health officials attending the meeting, participants were not convinced of the need to launch such an extensive vaccination campaign so quickly. They felt that the data required to support such a decision were still insufficient, in particular with respect to the duration of vaccine-induced immunity, the need for repeat doses, the vaccine’s long-term effects, etc. They also questioned the approach favoured by public health officials, which is based on expensive new technologies, instead of promoting awareness, prevention and sex education.

Disappointed with discussions with public health officials, the FQPN addressed its call for a moratorium directly in a letter to the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Federation demanded concrete steps aimed at countering the influence of the manufacturer of the proposed vaccine, Gardasil, through increased public education and awareness. The letter also calls attention to the following concerns:

* That the planned vaccination program is not in keeping with a comprehensive view of health or with an essential prevention approach.
* The need to adopt concrete measures to increase access to and improve monitoring of Pap test screening. It is worth noting that the participation rate for women in Quebec is among the lowest in Canada.
* The importance of developing consistent and structured sex education programs.
* The decision to invest in a new and extremely costly vaccine without considering other sexual health issues, in particular prevention of the main sexually transmitted infections, such as Chlamydia, which infects more then 12,500 girls every year in Quebec.
* Public health officials’ unwillingness to undertake an independent and complete information campaign on the realities of cervical cancer, HPV, the vaccine and screening tests.
* The government’s inaction in the face of marketing strategies and aggressive advertising by the manufacturer of Gardasil.

The Minister’s response, delivered by his national director of public health, was a disappointment to the FQPN. Reiterating his intention to proceed with the campaign, the Minister pledged his unconditional support for the recommendations of the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec [Quebec Committee on Immunization]. In its December report, the Committee recommended that all girls in Grade 4 be vaccinated against HPV in two doses, at the same time as the Hepatitis B vaccination. When the full details of the program were released in April, the government announced that a third dose will be given when the girls reach Grade 9, and that girls under 18 years may receive the free vaccine on request. Finally, the Minister made no reference to the issue of the manufacturer’s influence; moreover, he said nothing at all about the need for awareness and independent information.

Now that it seems unlikely that the government will change its position, the FQPN will continue to raise public awareness about the many concerns related to the Quebec vaccination campaign. For anyone interested in learning more or indeed in getting more involved in this issue, the FQPN invites your participation.

Nathalie Parent is Coordinator at the Fédération du Québec pour le planning des naissances (FQPN) in Montreal, Quebec.

For more information, including tools for education and action on this issue, visit:
FQPN website at www.fqpn.qc.ca/contenu/autresdossiers/vph.php
For more information, visit:

“HPV, Vaccines, and Gender: Policy Considerations,” Canadian Women’s Health Network, June 25, 2007 http://www.cwhn.ca/resources/cwhn/hpv-brief.html (soon to be available in French)

“Human papillomavirus, vaccines and women’s health: Questions and cautions,” by Abby Lippman et al., Canadian Medical Association Journal, August 28, 2007 http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/177/5/484

Document on the North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership

This PDF mentions the position of the Canadian Action Party and Connie Fogal, Leader as calling for the abrogation of NAFTA.

============================

http://www.stopthehogs.com/pdf/nafta-resistance.pdf

NAFTA Growing Resistance & Calls for Renegotiation & Oversight
A power point presentation by Janet M Eaton, PhD, academic, researcher, activist and free trade critic. June 8, 2008
This 60 slide power point with text, quotes, references and images chronicles the resistance to NAFTA that is rapidly emerging across North America. Civil Society groups, political parties, elected representatives, public policy centres and coalitions in Mexico, Canada and the US, as well as cross border coalitions, are all calling for the renegotiation of NAFTA.
It also documents US State level free trade oversight legislation, federal level promises that have emerged in the Democratic Primaries, and US Federal legislation in the works, including the June 4, 2008 T.R.A.D.E Act, all of which reflect growing public opinion to renegotiate NAFTA and free trade in general.

It is hoped by documenting and exposing the breadth and extent of this movement that citizens and politicians alike will recognize the imperative for action. With the significant evidence of failure of the present `free trade´ system and the extent of resistance highlighted herein, the recalcitrant and reactionary calls of elite proponents of NAFTA, to maintain the status quo, must be challenged.
Links to other power points on Globalization, NAFTA, and the SPP and their impacts are found at the end of this power point.
Please forward for general use in increasing awareness & encouraging political action !

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

EMERGENCY ALERT–BILL C51 being snuck through right now!!!

EMERGENCY ALERT: THEY’RE TRYING TO SNEAK C-51 THRU RIGHT NOW!!! WHAT TO DO-
THIS THREATENS USA TOO!!!

IAHF List: This just in. Please take action immediately in Canada, and if you
are American, please continue to donate to IAHF to assist us in our crusade to
kill C-51 or its police state measures will cross the border via FDA’s
Trilateral Cooperation Charter, the mechanism via which Codex is being forced
on N.America http://www.nocodexgenocide.com/page/page/3113337.htm
I just attended a lecture on C-51 by attorney Shawn Buckley in Vancouver. I
urge everyone on the IAHF list to get the videotape of that lecture from HANS
if you missed it: http://www.hans.org/events/?event=nhp I’ll have a complete
report from that lecture very soon, but had to get this emergency alert out
IMMEDIATELY so you can ACT!!
URGENT EMERGENCY ALERT

Today, June 4th 2008 Bill C-51 was quietly sneaked onto the Order List for the
House of Commons in Ottawa.
It is critical that all of you immediately go to www.healthcanadaabuse.com or
www.republicanpartyofontario.ca and send the E-Protest action letters.
You can also click on the links provided below.

· Harper & Cabinet Ministers
· Standing Committee of Health
· Canadian Senators
· Canadian Members of Parliament
· Conservative MPs
· Liberal MPs
· NDP MPs
· BLOC MPs
· Independent MPs

The current Status for Bill C-51 is here and for C-52 is here.

“THEY” cannot amend Bill C-51 before it is passed at second reading into
committee. If we can stop Bill C-51 now from being passed at second reading,
Bill C-51 will likely die on the Order paper and “THEY know it.

“THEY” must get, in a minority government other party agreement from the
following people in order to pass Bill C-51 or any other Bill on “Division”
with a “Party” vote in order to avoid a row by row individual recorded member
vote.

Conservative Party House Leader, Peter Van Loan, VanLoan.P@parl.gc.ca
Conservative Whip Jay Hill, Hill.J@parl.gc.ca
Conservative Deputy Whip Pierre Lemieux, Lemieux.P@parl.gc.ca

Liberal Party Whip Karen Redman Redman.K@parl.gc.ca
Liberal House Leader, Ralph Goodale Goodale.R@parl.gc.ca
Liberal Deputy House Leader, Lucienne Robillard Robillard.L @parl.gc.ca
NDP House Leader Libby Davies, Davies.L@parl.gc.ca
NDP Whip Yvon Godin, Godin@parl.gc.ca

Bloc House leader Pierre Paquette Paquette.P@parl.gc.ca
Bloc Dep House leader Monique Guay, Guay.M@parl.gc.ca
Bloc Whip Michel Guimond Guimond.M@parl.gc.ca
Bloc Dep Whip Pauline Picard, Picard.P@parl.gc.ca
If any of these are your MPs please call, write and visit ASAP.

To look up your MP please go here.

In a “Division Party Vote” your individual MPs do not read the Bill and / or
even have to be in attendance. This is a travesty of the Rule of British Common
Law and our Democratic Constitutional processes and should be stopped for all
Bills. Bill C-52 was sneaked into committee using this same technique and the
Conservative Party to keep their “FREEDOM OF CHOICE” promises MUST cancel Bills
C-51, C-52 and the Drug Class Natural Health Products Regulations now.

The Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom and supporters, as you may recall has
since 1997 have submitted to Parliament over 500,000 signed petitions which
generally state as follows:

We, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House to the
following:

1. THAT Canadians deserve to have an updated Food & Drugs Act, created by
Parliament today, that is consistent with Canadians’ inherent rights of
informed freedom of choice, and access to non-drug medicinal products of their
own choosing, as protected by Sections 1, 2, 7, and 15 of the Charter of Rights;

2. THAT healthy medicinal foods, herbs, spices, dietary supplements, and
other natural health and nutritional products should be properly classified as
foods, and not arbitrarily regulated, and otherwise restricted, as drugs by
Health Canada officials without a clear modern day legislated authority;

3. THAT the weight of modern scientific evidence confirms the mitigation,
and prevention of many diseases, and disorders through the judicious use of low
risk, medicinal foods, herbs, spices, dietary supplements, and other natural
health and nutritional products, as well as their extremely low levels of risk
compared to many synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, and other modern medical
procedures.

4. THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to provide Canadians
with greater access to non-drug, preventive and medicinal options, as well as
the information about these options, and to sanction the personal choices of
Canadians, by clarifying the currently vague definitions of “food”, and “drug”
in the outdated 1927 / 1952 Food & Drugs Act, and by repealing the outdated
prohibitions against making truthful health claims for the prevention,
treatment, and cure of health challenges with non-drug approaches, by enacting
Bill C -420, an act to amend the Food & Drugs Act.

More than 70% of Canadians now depend on natural products to maintain or
enhance their health because they offer a safer and more effective alternative
to high-risk pharmaceutical drugs. In BIG PHARMA’s effort to eradicate their
competition for a monopoly, Bills C-51, C-52 and the Drug Class Natural Health
Products Regulations will “criminalize” Natural Health Products including
vitamins, minerals, herbs, greens drinks, carrot juice and many “Therapeutic”
and “Healthy Foods”.

It is very important for you to actively participate now in order to help our
Coalition and its supporters to stop not only the “Division” second reading of
Bill C-51, but also to force immediate cancellation of Bill C-52 and the drug
class Natural Health Product Regulations that has attempted to make your greens
drinks, herbs, vitamins, minerals, carrot juice, etc. into “NEW DRUGS”!

Our Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom believes in the British Rule of
Common Law, the Written and Unwritten Constitution and Canadian Democracy,
where to quote Thomas Jefferson;

“The care of human life and not its destruction is the first and only
legitimate object of good government.”

Most Canadians believe that the “CROWN” is ultimately a trust and that the
beneficial ultimate owner / shareholder of the “CROWN” and its assets should be
and is the ordinary men and women of our society.

If you look up ” Implied Bill of Rights” and ” Rule of Law” you will understand
where our supporters are coming from on these issues. As human beings and small
family enterprises our elected officials should not and can not let big
government and big business put profits before people.

This is politely called ” Statism” or not so politely called Fascist Socialism.

For information on the Canadian Coalition for Health Freedom visit
www.canadiancoalitionforhealthfreedom.ca and / or e-mail to
United@canadiancoalitionforhealthfreedom.ca, and / or phone: 613-771-1797
And / or fax to: 613-771-1435
ALSO, utilize information at www.stopc51.com and make sure you get their flyers
into all Health Food Stores, Naturopaths offices, etc and if a Store Refuses to
Help, you MUST boycott them and direct their customers to the nearest stores
that ARE helping with our campaign! Some CHFA member stores are refusing to
help because CHFA is lying to them about the bill which they’re only trying to
amend when it MUST be killed!
Your donations to IAHF are helping us do this work. My car was broken into in
Vancouver when I was just there for Shawn Buckley’s presentation on C-51.
Someone did a smash and grab on me and broke the quarter panel window with a
hammer. Today I got it replaced at a junkyard. Vancouver is chock full of
crackheads and heroin addicts. Your donations are helping me pay for expensive
Canadian gas ($6. and more per gallon) so I can make the rounds to insure that
Stores are taking action against C-51 and C-52.
If we fail to win this war north of the Border, we’re done for in the USA.
We’ve been blocked from getting congressional oversight on FDA’s Trilateral
Cooperation Charter by Pharma PAC donations to members of the Oversight Sub
Committee, so if you want your access to supplements, PLEASE assist me in my
efforts to kill C-51 in Canada- right now its the only way to protect DSHEA in
the USA because they’re very actively forcing us into a N.American Union
Dictatorship and we have to SCRAMBLE at this point to protect ourselves!!
IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd. Point Roberts WA 98281 USA or via paypal
http://www.iahf.com/index1.html

For Health Freedom, John C. Hammell, President International Advocates for
Health Freedom 556 Boundary Bay Road Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA
http://www.iahf.com jham@iahf.com 800-333-2553 N.America 360-945-0352 World

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

No to SPP says Melissa Brade – CAP Candidate

Melissa Brade

Canadian Action Party candidate, Yellowhead.

Concern about our countries sovereignty and the future for my children if things continue as they have is my motivation for joining politics.

Our country is no longer in our hands, and is instead being controlled by multinational corporations, whose only motivation is profit, with no responsibility to the people or the environment.

…

(Full Article: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com)

Paradigm Education Group – Reclaiming Our Rights

For some annoying reasons, the video only plays for a while. I’d like to be able to listen to the whole thing.

This presentation discusses practical ways Canadians can reclaim their rights, their freedoms, and their country. In particular, their … all » right to property, their economic freedom, and the national economic sovereignty of their country.

Part one explores the reasons behind the fact there are no property rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms, and what that means once we learn who we are in Canada’s legal system.

Part two begins by looking at the veracity of the common belief that income tax is as certain as death. From there it continues with a discussion on the real reason for income tax and what can be accomplished with a bit of political will.

Part three explores the truth behind whether Canadians live in just a democratic society, or something more, and what does the reality of our social structure mean when consideration is given to the supremacy of human rights and freedoms.

Brasscheck TV: Why Eliot Spitzer was assassinated politically

Why was Eliot Spitzer assassinated politically and so quickly?

More than one source has sent me this Brasscheck video explaining that the money powers were at work to halt a concerted effort by many US states to stop fraudulent and predatory bank practices, and reinstate consumer protections that Bush had removed. Spitzer was the leading light in that battle and he had to be stopped.

Never underestimate the power of the financial community.

What secrets do they hold to control our leading Canadian politicians and prevent their championing of our Bank of Canada for our people????

Here is what Guy says:

Most people have the sense that there was something bizarre and surreal about the sudden coordinated FBI and US news media attack on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

After all, ….how he may have chosen to spend his own money on his own time hardly
seems a worthy subject of front page news for a week straight.

Meanwhile, the US news media remained characteristically clueless about why Spitzer was taken out.

It’s simple.

He had the goods on Bush administration collusion with predatory lenders and was preparing a case that would have tied the administration directly to wide spread fraud and criminality in the lending business.

Full details here…exclusive to Brasscheck TV: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/291.html

- Brasscheck TV

P.S. No one else was covering this story, so we did.

You won’t find a video about this anywhere else on the Internet.

Please share with friends and colleagues.

This is important info, don’t you agree?

If the combined forces of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox, the New York Times and the Washington Post can’t do basis reporting like this, it’s up to you the reader to spread the word.

- Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and videos with friends and colleagues.

That’s how we grow. Thanks.

==============================

Brasscheck TV
2380 California St.
San Francisco, CA 94115

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

Is Canada worth saving from the grasp of elites/Industrials?

Is Canada worth saving? Is democracy worth saving? These are the two fundamental questions we must address now – before it is too late. Canadian values are disappearing rapidly as we lose our independence and our sovereignty. The country is being dismantled after more than a century of nation building. We are losing control of our most important industries. As we give up domestic ownership of our assets, we lose the most exciting and challenging jobs, which too often move to the new corporate headquarters outside Canada – and young people who want those jobs must follow. It’s part of the brain drain. In effect, Canada has become a victim of “Globalization”. We are told this process is both inevitable and good. It is only inevitable if we let it happen. It is only good for two to five percent of the world’s richest and most powerful people. It is bad for the vast majority.
Paul Hellyer, author

I should make a distinction between those areas where global cooperation is both good and essential, and those areas where it is harmful. We must cooperate globally to protect our oceans, the ozone layer and prevent Global Warming. International cooperation is also required to protect endangered species, fight international crime and in other areas of mutual concern. What we have to stop is the relentless drive on the part of multinational corporations and international banks – centred largely in the five big powers – to take over governance of the world for their own benefit.

The Canada – U.S. Free Trade Agreement

The “Globalization” process got a rocket-assisted boost with the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Canadians were led to believe that this was a trade agreement. When I read it, I found, to my dismay, that it was primarily an investment agreement. Sure it called for reductions in tariffs, but this was already happening under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The most important parts of the FTA were about investment. The Americans wanted our industries and resources – especially energy and water. They also wanted our land. Instead of Canada being open for business again, as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proudly boasted, it was up for sale.

Mr. Mulroney allowed the Americans to insert a “national treatment” clause which was a new concept in international law that gave U.S. investors the same rights in Canada as Canadian citizens. I think this is wrong in principle! Where is the value of citizenship if foreign investors have the same rights? In fact, the “national treatment” clause gave American investors the right to invest in Canada without conditions and without limits. We can no longer say “You can’t buy more than 50% of our forest industry or oil and gas reserves” – because the treaty says they can own all our reserves. The same rule applies to our best farmland. With the FTA, Brian Mulroney accomplished two things: He virtually guaranteed the demise of Canada as a nation state, and he allowed the conquest of Canada by America. The conquest is still tentative, perhaps, for about two more years. Then we will reach the point of no return after which annexation by the United States will become inevitable. I am concerned that several hundred years of experiment in popular democracy is coming to an end because globalization is really a code word for corporate rule and colonization.

NAFTA – Canada is being sued

When we signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), we granted U.S. and Mexican investors greater rights in Canada than Canadian citizens enjoy. Chapter 11, the disputes settlement chapter, allows foreign investors to sue if our governments – federal, provincial or municipal – pass any law or regulation that affect their corporate profits or potential profits. And we are being sued. The first suit was the celebrated Ethyl case. When the Canadian parliament passed a law prohibiting the importation and distribution of MMT, a manganese-based gasoline additive in Canada, the U.S. Ethyl Corporation sued the government of Canada. The government settled out of court for $20 million in legal costs and agreed to repeal the law. So who is running Canada when a foreign corporation can dictate to the Canadian parliament? Equally bad, the settlement agreement required two Canadian cabinet ministers to read statements to the effect that MMT was not harmful either to the environment or to health at the very moment that the latest scientific evidence suggested that it may indeed be injurious to the health, especially of children. There are other cases pending. The Sun Belt Water Corporation of California is suing for $1.5-$10.5 billion because we won’t let it sell our water. Pope & Talbot Inc., a U.S. forest company is suing for $500 million. These suits are just the tip of the iceberg.

The WTO is Anti-Democratic

The World Trade Organization is another threat to our democratic traditions. It has ruled that the auto pact with the U.S. is illegal. It has ruled that the European Union has to accept U.S. and Canadian beef that has been raised on bovine growth hormones. It said that the U.S. could not ban tuna caught in nets that drown sea turtles. (In every case involving an environmental issue, the WTO has ruled against the environment). Now the WTO has ruled that our drug patents are too short and that, in effect, we have to change our laws to correspond with U.S. laws. In addition to this affront to our sovereignty, this ruling, if it stands, means that we will have to pay untold millions more for drugs at a time when our health care system is already in crisis from inadequate funding.

What Kind of Democracy?

The decline of democracy in the U.S. has reached the point where Lewis Lapham, editor of Harpers Magazine, says the U.S. has two governments – the permanent government and the provisional government. The permanent government comprises: (a) the Fortune 500 list of the largest American corporations, (b) the largest law firms in Washington that do their legal work for them, (c) the largest public relation firms in Washington that do their advertising and public relations and (d) the top public servants both civil and military. These groups make up the permanent government that really runs the country. Then there is the provisional government – “politicians for hire”. Every few years there is a charade called an election which picks a political actor to go on stage and read the scripts written by the permanent government. As some actors read scripts with less improvisation than others, the permanent government checks them out in advance and decides who they want. Then they put up the money to get them elected. George Bush is the perfect stereotype. Listen to him on “Free Trade” and foreign policy and you will know he is the actor of choice. Why did Elizabeth Dole drop out of the Republican race? Because she was not the choice of the permanent government and didn’t have the funds to continue.

There are Strings Attached

The evolution of the system has led to a government that is little more than a big bully enforcer for giant American corporations. The U.S. government goes to the WTO and gets a ruling forcing us to accept whatever big corporations want. Their giant corporations want to dominate world markets. In a “Globalized” society, people don’t matter – only corporations do. Small independent operators and family farms are doomed by globalization.

Aggressive Agri-Business

One of the coziest arrangements has been between the U.S. government and Monsanto Corporation – now in the process of changing its name due to a bad image. Monsanto is the company that gave us Agent Orange, the allegedly safe defoliant used in the Vietnam War which has now claimed thousands of casualties. Monsanto is also one of the companies developing terminator seeds, seeds that cannot be replanted because they are genetically altered to be sterile. This is one of the most frightening developments in modern history. Attempts to corner world seed markets and sell only genetically altered seed would impoverish millions of people. When I learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had assisted Monsanto in the development of such a patently evil product I wondered how this could be possible in a democracy. Then I learned that one of Monsanto’s key directors was one of President Clinton’s key fundraisers. It is a matter of national shame that the Canadian government has been aiding and abetting the U.S. in promoting the interests of this destructive company including its increased control of Canadian agriculture. Ottawa is helping to drive Canadian farmers out of business. Globalization in agriculture means three or four giant agribusinesses are determined to monopolize the world food supply with their genetically-altered species and make us all dependent on them for our food. As we capitulate, and let our farmers go under, these aggressive corporations are buying up some of our best agricultural land.

National Fire Sale

At the same time, many of our best companies are being bought out. Thirteen thousand Canadian companies have been sold to foreigners in the last decade or so – more than 10,000 to Americans. In a stunning admission to the National Post in early March, Industry Minister John Manley predicted the end of federal restrictions that prevent foreigners from buying Canadian airlines, communications companies and even banks. There will be nothing left of Canada but an empty shell. And the kind of corporate-controlled government that allows this to happen is a cruel joke. Canada and the world are being re-engineered without the consent of the citizens who are having their birthright sold out from under their feet.

Let, Corporations Rule the World

The substitution of corporate rule for democracy is being imposed around the world. Countries have to sign treaties that give transnational corporations the right to cherry-pick their industries and assets. If a country has a business that begins to cut into market share, the transnationals can buy it, make it part of their empire, shut it down or move it to Malaysia, for example. Under the rules of “Globalization”, no country – other than the big five (or six) – can hope to achieve anything like self-sufficiency.

Neo-Classical Economics – Bad economic theory and bad economic management

All of this change is justified in the name of laissez-faire economics, which insists that governments are bad and markets are good. Government-owned services must be privatized. Even basic services like health and education are on the block. This is all in accord with the ideas of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and his colleagues at the University of Chicago. At first, the Friedman system (ideology) was called monetarism, but when that wasn’t technically accurate, it was renamed neo-classical monetarism – and, more recently – just neo-classical economics. It should have been called retro-classical rather than neo-classical because it is not new. It is the same old pre-depression boom-bust system. Mainline economists won’t admit it, but their 25-year experiment with neo-classical economics has been a monumental flop and resulted in a monumental 2,289% increase in federal debt. The increase in debt was not primarily due to overspending as the right insists. It was primarily due to the slow growth of the economy and debt compounding at high interest rates due to monetarist policies. Compound interest was the real culprit.

People are the Victims

The cold statistics can be translated into the heart-wrenching experiences of many Canadians. If you are a doctor or a nurse, you are likely to find yourself so overworked and stressed out that you are unable to provide the quality of care you want to give. The same can be said for many teachers whose workload has been increased to the point where they have felt obliged to reduce or eliminate participation in extra-curricular activities like drama or sports. If you are a student, you may graduate with as much or more debt as the mortgage on your parents’ first house. And, no matter who you are, if you lack skills, you may be unemployed from time-to-time because a “Globalized” market system is not designed for full employment (four percent). Demand management, as practiced in the early post-war years is a neo-classical “no no”. Your company may be bought and downsized leaving you with few options after long years of faithful service. This is just part of the price of “Globalization”.

Is there any hope?

There is hope but it will require a revolution of the intellect followed by a revolution at the ballot box. First, and immediately, we have to abrogate the FTA and NAFTA in order to get rid of the “national treatment” clause that is killing Canada. This does not mean turning the clock back ten years on trade! Canada can compete in trade. But we cannot compete in investment – we just don’t have money on the same scale. So, we must try to replace the FTA and NAFTA with new fair trade agreements and, if that is not possible, rely on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which served us so well for so long. Once we are rid of the “national treatment” clause, we must start screening foreign investment again and stop the sale of our best industries and with it stop much of the brain drain. Then, we must refuse to sign any more treaties, such as the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) that will extend the “national treatment” clause to the tip of South America. And, at the same time, we must take health care, education, agriculture and intellectual property off the table for the WTO negotiations. To give up our sovereignty in these important areas would reduce all Canadian governments to a state of impotence. This must not be allowed to happen! Canada should say “No!” to any extension of WTO jurisdiction and influence until we can gauge the damage already done.

The Monopoly to Print Money

In 1974, the Bank of Canada owned more than 20% of federal government debt – the equivalent of an interest-free loan. But that is the year our central bank adopted the ideas of Milton Friedman and began to give back to the private banks their virtual monopoly to “print” money. The result is that today the B of C only owns about 4% of federal government debt and the shortfall has to be borrowed from the market, including the private banks, at high interest rates. In effect, taxpayers are subsidizing the private banks by $4-$5 billion a year. There is insufficient space to discuss monetary theory here but anyone who is interested can read books on the subject including one or two of mine such as ‘Surviving the Global Financial Crisis’, or ‘Stop: Think’, the latest one. A system where private banks print nearly all of the money is not a stable system (44 recessions and depressions in 200 years) and is not one that will provide full employment for Canada or the world. There is simply not enough money in the hands of rank and file consumers. So, we have to learn the lessons of history and revert to the system we had in effect from 1939 to 1974. Access to significant amounts of publicly-created, zero cost (debt free) money is the only way governments can meet the conflicting demands of increased expenditures for health care, education, environmental concerns, research and development, the arts and other legitimate areas of public concern while permitting lower taxes at the same time. There is no other way to reconcile the claims of left and right.

The War [Electoral] for Independence

The next federal election will decide Canada’s fate. If any party – or combination of parties – that supports the FTA and NAFTA forms the next government, Canada is dead. Our only hope is a genuine alliance of patriotic Liberals, Conservatives, Reformers, NDPers, Bloc Québécois, and even people too cheesed-off to vote, getting together in one powerful movement to turn the ship of state around before it is too late. An independent Canada is best for the United States, the world and us. If we really believe that, we all have to enlist in Canada’s war for independence and make it happen.

Editorial Note: Globalization directly affects our personal freedom, for example, to choose the food and medicine we need for our health.

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

World Against War Days of Action

On the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, join the World Against War Days of Action…

Rally
Saturday, March 15
12 Noon
Vancouver Art Gallery
(Georgia side, at Hornby)
Music by Vancouver’s legendary D.O.A.

&

Picket
Wednesday, March 19
11am to 1pm, U.S. Consulate (1075 W. Pender, at Thurlow)

• Bring the troops home from Afghanistan
• Give refuge to Iraq war resisters
  
• Don’t attack Iran
• End the siege of Gaza

Spread the word, get your organization to sign on to endorse these events, and invite your friends to be part of this worldwide action against war.

Organized by StopWar.ca and Canadians Against War.

Endorsers listed here for information.

To add your organization’s name as an endorser, email contact[a]stopwar.ca.

Music
Headwater
The Carnival Band
Solidarity Notes, VDLC Labour Choir
Stereoground Band
Wandering Snowman

Business & Professional
Babylon Buttons
Dunnett Classic Drums
People’s Coop Book Store

Cities and municipalities
City of Burnaby

Environmental groups
FORPA, Forest Protection Allies
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation

Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Chinese Refugees Rights Committee
Direct Action Against Refugee Exploitation DAARE)
No One Is Illegal
War Resisters Support Campaign

Labour organizations
B.C. Government and Services Employees’ Union
BC Federation of Labour
BC Teachers Federation
Burnaby Civic Employees’ Union, Local 23 CUPE
Canadian Union of Postal Workers, (Vancouver Local)
Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 15
CAW Canada
CEP Local 525G
CUPE Local 407 (Vancouver School Board Outside)
CUPE Vancouver Metropolitan District
Hospital Employees Union
International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, Local 891
International Longshore Workers Union, Local 400
Public Service Alliance of Canada, Local 60
Surrey Teachers Association
Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East
Vancouver & District Labour Council
Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association

Media
Co-op Radio
Common Ground
Outlook: Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine
Seven Oaks Magazine

Neighbourhood and Community groups
Kits4Peace
Palestine Community Centre – Vancouver

Peace and Justice organizations
ADALA, Canadian Arab Justice Committee
ALPHA Canada Assoc. for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia
Arab Palestine Association
BC ALPHA Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WW II in Asia
BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaig
Canada Cuba Friendship Ass
Canada Palestine Association
Canada Palestine Support Network
Canadian Network for Democratic Nepal
Canadian Peace Alliance – National
Coalition in Solidarity with the People of Iraq
Committee for Solidarity with Columbia
Comox Valley Peace Group
End the Arms Race
Haiti Solidarity BC
International Society for Peace & Human Rights
International South Asia Forum
Jews For A Just Peace
Muslim Canadian Federation
Nelson Light for Peace Coalition
Palestine Solidarity Group
The Peace Walker Society – BC
School of the Americas Watch Kootenay Branch
Serbian-Canadian Society of Vancouver
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
Sunshine Coast Peace Group
The Canadian Latin-American Collective
Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians
Vancouver Non-Violence Training Collective
Veterans Against Nuclear Arms
World Sikh Organization
Writers Against the War

Political Parties
Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada, Marxist Leninist

COPE
December 9 Coalition
Freedom Socialist Party
Green Party (BC)
Green Party of Canada
International Socialists
New Democratic Party – National
New Socialist Group
Simon Fraser Green Party
Vancouver Green Party
Vancouver-Kingsway Provincial NDP Constituency Association
Work Less Party

Politicians
Libby Davies, MP (Vancouver East)
Peter Julian MP (Burnaby-New Westminster)
Bill Silksay, MP (Burnaby-Douglas)

David Chudnovsky, MLA Vancouver-Kensington
David Cadman, Vancouver City Councillor
Lisa Barrett, Councilor Bowen Island
Dr Fred Bass, Former City Councilor
Don Davies, candidate Vancouver-Kingsway (NDP)
Spencer Herbert, Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner
Tim Louis, Former Vancouver City Councillor
Adrienne Montani, Former Trustee VSB
Svend Robinson, Former MP

Professional Associations
BC Association of Social Workers
Douglas College Faculty Association & Executive Council
Federation of Post Secondary Educators
Lawyers Against the War
Physicians for Global Survival
Cuba Education Tours

Prominent Individuals
Dan Chambers, United Church Minister
Lloyd Edwards, Past President of Surrey Teachers’ Association
Jef Keighley, Exec. Dir. World Peace Forum 2006
Valerie Raoul, Professor Women’s Studies & French
Bob Rosen, Past President, Surrey Teachers Association
Dr. David Suzuki, Environmentalist
Dr. Michael Wallace, Professor Political Studies UBC

Religious Organizations
Across our Differences
Anglican Diocese of New Westminster Justice and Peace Unit
Bible Holiness Movement
Canadian Memorial Church & Centre for Peace
Christian Task Force on Central America (BC)
Franciscan Sisters of Joy
Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement
Global and Societal Ministries BC Conference
Kootenay Fellowship of Reconciliation
Mennonite Central Committee
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Social Justice Committee of South Frazer Unitarian Congregation
Social Justice Committee Unitarian Church of Vancouver
Spritual Direction (North Vancouver)
St Chiara Community
Synod-Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Trinity United Church (Kitsilano) Social Justice Group
Trinity United Church, Port Coquitlam
Union of Spiritual Communities in Christ (Doukhobors)
United Church of Canada – national
Vancouver Catholic Worker

Seniors groups
Senior Networks BC
Seniors on Guard for Medicare

Global Justice organizations
Anti-Poverty Committee
Artists Against War
Bikes Not Bombs
Bus Riders Union
Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers
Canadians Concerned About Free Trade
Canadian Network for Democratic Nepal
Check Your Head
Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC
Council of Canadians (BC)
Council of Canadians, Mid Island Chapter
Council of Canadians (Richmond Chapter)
Council of Canadians (Vancouver Chapter)
Global Justice
Marginalized Workers Action League
Necessary Voices
Oxfam Canada
Pacific Spirit Family & Community Services Society
Queers United Against Kapitalism
Salaam Vancouver
Vancouver Vigils
Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights

Student & Youth groups
Canadian Federation of Students
City Centre Student Union
Color Connected
Douglas College Student Union
Emily Carr Students Against the War Coalition
Langara Peace Coalition
Medical Students For Global Survival
SFU Centre for Labour Studies
SFU Muslim Student Association
Simon Fraser Student Society
South Asian Students Alliance
UBC NDP Student Club
UBC Nursing Undergraduate Society
UBC Social Justice Centre
Youth For A Better World

Women’s organizations
AMS Women’s Centre
Vancouver Raging Grannies
Women Elders in Action
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (BC)

Website with more information on March actions against war:
http://stopwar.ca/
http://theworldagainstwar.org/
http://canadiansagainstwar.org/

EU Leaders sign landmark treaty

The document, signed at a ceremony at the city’s historic Jeronimos Monastery, also scraps veto powers in many policy areas.

ONE APPOINTED PRESIDENT FOR ALL OF EUROPE.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6901353.stm

The final stages of a single European government is being finalized.
This is a look into the future for North America. We may one day have this same system if certain people get their way. New treaty removes veto powers from member nations and removes France and the UK from the UN security council!
This further decays the sovereignty from all member countries.

Eventually, there will be no Poland. No Germany. No France! DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO CANADA! We have something to offer this world with our unique views and opinions, let Canada stand strong and free, and lead the world, not step backwards in time to when single individuals decide the fate of us all.

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newletter)

Faults in the Arctic Seed Vault: not everyone is celebrating Svalbard

By GRAIN

Global Research, February 27, 2008
Grain

After months of extraordinary publicity, and with the apparently unanimous
support of the international scientific community, the “Global Seed Vault” was
officially opened today on an island in Svalbard, Norway. Nestled inside a
mountain, the Vault is basically a giant icebox able to hold 4.5 million seed
samples in cold storage for humanity’s future needs. The idea is that if some
major disaster hits world agriculture, such as fallout from a nuclear war,
countries could turn to the Vault to pull out seeds to restart food production.
However, this “ultimate safety net” for the biodiversity that world farming
depends on is sadly just the latest move in a wider strategy to make ex situ
(off site) storage in seed banks the dominant – indeed, only – approach to crop
diversity conservation. It gives a false sense of security in a world where the
crop diversity present in the farmers’ fields continues to be eroded and
destroyed at an ever-increasing rate and contributes to the access problems that
plague the international ex situ system.

Faulty assumptions

Cary Fowler, Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and one of the main
proponents of the Vault, says that the initiative “will rescue the most globally
important developing-country collections of the world’s 21 most important food
crops.” While it’s true that crop diversity needs to be rescued and protected,
as irreplaceable diversity is being lost at an alarming scale, relying solely on
burying seeds in freezers is no answer. The world currently has 1,500 ex situ
genebanks that are failing to save and preserve crop diversity. Thousands of
accessions have died in storage, as many have been rendered useless for lack of
basic information about the seeds, and countless others have lost their unique
characteristics or have been genetically contaminated during periodic grow-outs.
This has happened throughout the ex situ system, not just in genebanks of
developing countries. So the issue is not about being for or against genebanks,
it is about the sole reliance on one conservation strategy that, in itself, has
a lot of inherent problems.

The deeper problem with the single focus on ex situ seed storage, that the
Svalbard Vault reinforces, is that it is fundamentally unjust. It takes seeds of
unique plant varieties away from the farmers and communities who originally
created, selected, protected and shared those seeds and makes them inaccessible
to them. The logic is that as people’s traditional varieties get replaced by
newer ones from research labs – seeds that are supposed to provide higher yields
to feed a growing population – the old ones have to be put away as “raw
material” for future plant breeding. This system forgets that farmers are the
world’s original, and ongoing, plant breeders. To access the seeds, you have to
be integrated into a whole institutional framework that most farmers on the
planet simply don’t even know about. Put simply, the whole ex situ strategy
caters to the needs of scientists, not farmers

In addition, the system operates under the assumption that once the farmers’
seeds enter a storage facility, they belong to someone else and negotiating
intellectual property and other rights over them is the business of governments
and the seed industry itself. In the case of most so-called public genebanks,
the seeds are said to become part of “the public domain” if not “national
sovereignty” (which increasingly translates to state ownership). The
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which runs
about 15 global genebanks for the world’s most widely used staple food crops,
has even set up a legal arrangement of “trusteeship” that it exercises over the
treasure chest of farmers’ seeds that it holds “on behalf of” the international
community, under the auspices of the FAO. Yet they never asked the farmers whom
they took the seeds from in the first place if this was okay and they left
farmers totally out of the trusteeship equation.

The new Svalbard Vault lies squarely at the pinnacle of this faulty architecture
and false assumptions, inevitably exacerbating these problems. Because it is a
“doomsday” backup collection, it raises the stakes to new extremes. Nobody
really knows for sure if the Vault will be effective in keeping the seeds alive
and its security is untested. Just days before the opening of the Vault,
Svalbard was at the centre of the biggest earthquake in Norway’s history, even
though the facility’s feasibility study assured that “there is no volcanic or
significant seismic activity” in the area. But more troubling than any technical
matter is the issue of access, the keys to which are held by few hands.

Access and benefit ills

The Vault is not immune from the terrible controversies over access to and
benefits from the world’s precious agricultural biodiversity. The Norwegian
government is ultimately responsible for the Vault and is currently regarded as
fair and trustworthy, but there is no guarantee that the country’s policies
won’t change. This is acknowledged by the Norwegian government itself, which has
provided agreements to be signed with depositors that last only ten years and
that include clauses allowing them to be terminated if policies change. Probably
more important, the Norwegian government will not be making decisions
autonomously. Decisions will be shared with the Global Crop Diversity Trust, a
private entity with strong private and corporate funding.

There are already some access issues with the Vault. For all practical purposes,
seeds cannot be stored in the Vault unless they come from genebanks that have
successfully duplicated their samples in another bank. More than this,
depositors are not allowed to put in seeds that are already stored in the Vault.
The Standard Depositor Agreement states that the “Depositor shall deposit only
samples of plant genetic resources that are, to the best of the Depositor’s
knowledge,.. samples of plant genetic resources that have not yet been deposited
in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault” and that “the Depositor recognizes the right
of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food to refuse to accept
samples for deposit or to terminate the deposit of samples already deposited if
the samples constitute duplicates of materials already held in deposit in the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault”.

As a rule, only depositors can access their own collections at Svalbard, or give
permission for someone else to. With parcels of CGIAR seeds already arriving in
Norway, this means that the CGIAR Centres will be the depositors for most of the
seeds held in the Vault, giving them almost exclusive control over access.
Indeed, as the Seed Vault feasibility study indicates, it was “assumed that the
[Vault] would begin operations with a nucleus consisting of the CGIAR materials
and those of certain key national genebanks and that this (sic) ‘founding
collections’ would discourage subsequent unnecessary duplication of materials
within the Svalbard facility.” Out of the 19 depositor institutes that have
registered with the Vault so far, only three are national seed banks from
developing countries. The Vault, then, is not a safe deposit box for just
anyone. It is mostly the CGIAR’s private stash.

In practical terms this means that many developing countries that want to
duplicate their collections in Svalbard would not be able to do so directly. It
would be seen as a duplicate of what the CGIAR has already deposited. They will
not, therefore, have direct access to seeds in the Vault that may have been
collected from their country. This might not seem to pose many concerns right
now because governments have different backup sources for seeds but the context
would be vastly different under any doomsday scenario where decisions would have
to be taken over a critical, unique resource which suddenly only remains in
Svalbard. For farmers there is pretty much no possibility for direct access to
seeds in the Vault.

But doomsday aside, it is important to ask who really benefits from the ex situ
system that the Vault contributes to. As the few transnational seed corporations
that control over half the world’s US$30 billion annual commercial seed market
are increasingly buying up public plant breeding programmes and governments are
pulling out of plant breeding, the ultimate beneficiaries will be the very same
corporations that are at the roots of crop diversity destruction.

Stop destroying diversity instead!

If governments were truly interested in conserving biodiversity for food and
agriculture, they would do two things. First, they would, as a central priority,
focus their efforts on supporting diversity in their countries’ farms and
markets rather than only betting on big centralised genebanks. This means
leaving seeds in the hand of local farmers, with their active and innovative
farming practices, respecting and promoting the rights of communities to
conserve, produce, breed, exchange and sell seeds. But this won’t happen until
governments turn agricultural policy and regulations upside down and stop
pushing for industrialisation and feeding corporate-controlled global markets at
the expense of letting farmers freely feed their own communities and countries.
This means making food sovereignty the foundation of farm policy instead of
continuously pushing agriculture further down the destructive path of
corporate-led global market integration.

Svalbard is about putting diversity away, in case of some hypothetic emergency.
The real urgency, however, is to let diversity live – in farms, in the hand of
farmers, and across people-controlled and community-oriented markets – today.

Going further:

Aasa Christine Stoltz, “Norway’s biggest quake hits Svalbard archipelago,”
Reuters, 21 February 2008.

http://www.reuters.com/ article/environmentNews

/idUSL2173668320080221

Norwegian government and the Svalbard vault:

http://www.nordgen.org/sgsv/

Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Svalbard vault:
http://www.croptrust.org/main/arctic.php?itemid=216

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

http://www.planttreaty.org/

GRAIN, “The FAO seed treaty: from farmers’ rights to breeders’ privileges,”
Seedling, October 2005.

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=411

Center for International Environment and Development Studies et al, “Study to
assess the feasibility of establishing a Svalbard Arctic seed depository for the
international community”, prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Ministry of Agriculture and Food, 14 September 2004.

http://www.regjeringen.no/ en/dep/lmd/campain/svalbard-global-seed-vault/
publications.html?id=463313

Svalbard Global Seed Vault – Standard Depositor Agreement.
http://www.nordgen.org/ sgsv/index.php?page=depositor_guidelines

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8218

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

No to SPP, No to North American Union says Miss Fogal.

Connie Fogal says “That the North American continent is being transformed from three sovereign nations – Canada, USA, Mexico into one regional corporate power base and a North American Union police state through agreements like FTA, NAFTA, TILMA, and SPP. The Smart Border Action Plan, the Smart Regulation Action Plan and the Bi-National Planning Agreement. However, unlike the creation of the European Union, there is no public, political or academic discourse on the merits, or pros and cons of a North American Union or a vote within each nation as to the wish of the people to join such a union. It is being imposed on us by stealth by our own elected representatives and governments, and is already well on its way to fruition. The NDP is calling for a debate and vote in Parliament which will result in approval.

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

Security and Prosperity Partnership and its Gatekeepers: An Explanation

By Derek Skinner

The path to a full understanding of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is guarded by gatekeepers.

“What is a Gatekeeper?” you ask.

Think of it in a physical sense ? someone who stops you going through a gate. If the gate is in a field of knowledge it is someone who stops you learning what is at the next level of understanding and when you are dealing with progress it is someone who prevents you from taking the next step.

“How is that done?” you say.

It is done by — giving you false information — denying you access to the information you need to be able to understand what is going on, – diverting your attention — making you think you have taken the necessary step while actually standing still.

“Who are the gatekeepers?”

They are those who — lie to you — pretend there is nothing happening, – and lead you off down diversionary paths of inconsequential endeavours so that you never get around to dealing with the real problem.

The first two strategies were amply demonstrated by Messrs. Harper and Bush at Montebello, making out that the harmonizing of regulations for jellybeans would not threaten Canadian sovereignty and denying the existence of the NAFTA superhighway corridors that will join Mexico to Canada. The strategy would be a fair description of the Liberal and Conservative governments we have had for the last 30 years together with their corporate controlled national print, radio and TV media cartels.

The third strategy alone refers to the media emphasis on blood and sex, and that is ably supported by the American film industry which has a stranglehold on cinema outlets and movie distribution.

It is assumed that if you have read this far you know that there is a substantial part of civil society that is aware of the deceitful way that both Liberal and Conservative governments have been working for some thirty years to bring about the integration of Canada, the USA and Mexico into a North American Union (the NAU).

The dismantling of Canadian sovereignty, began with Canada’s acceptance of, and membership in, the globalization agenda of the then G7 in the mid 1970s. The first item on the agenda was to transfer control of Canadian Government’s money supply to the private banks. Canada is one of the few countries left in the world with a publicly owned central bank, which can provide for the infrastructure and social programme needs of Canadians at near zero interest, which it did from 1938 to 1974. The result of this transfer is that the Federal debt of $18 billion (since Confederation to 1974) has exploded into a debt of $500 + billion, most of which is compound interest. Each year we pay in excess of $30 billion in compound interest to the private money lenders for a debt that will never be repaid. Add in provincial and municipal debt and that amount is doubled! All of this we pay through various levels of taxation.

As Prime Minister Mackenzie King said in 1935 prior to nationalization of the Bank of Canada:

“Once a nation parts with control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nation’s laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile”

The NAU has been developed through the Free Trade agenda of the FTA (1988) and then NAFTA (1993), followed by the secretive agreement of the SPP (2005) and a host of other side agreements including unification of armed forces in NORTHCOM (2002), that have never been discussed outside of a cabal of senior government officials and military and corporate leaders; and not in Parliament. The secrecy has been facilitated by a fog of denial, distortion and deception in the corporate controlled media intended to keep most of the public in ignorance.

The NAU will be a corporate controlled body, ruled by an elite elected from the corporations, that will direct policy through tribunals that are mandated to protect corporate interests and profits. Civil society will be the ant colony in a fake Hollywood-style democracy, controlled through fear of an unending supply of contrived/phoney external enemies. The NAU plan is due for completion in 2010.

The last category of gatekeepers, is reserved for those who articulate the problem but stop short of taking that next vital step.

These are some of the lesser political parties and civil society NGOs.

Why on earth would a supposedly progressive party or NGO lead its supporters through the morass of ethical, legal, political elements of the “Stop the SPP” campaign, and then stop short of implementing the one action that will produce the stoppage results?

Several possibilities are listed below, in no particular order. Maybe you can think of some better alternatives. For brevity let’s call the co-operating party or NGO the “entity”. 1. The entity believes that, if the negative aspects of the SPP are understood by enough people, a groundswell of public opinion will induce the government to peacefully change its policies.

(The entity does not understand that political policy driven by ideology can only be changed through political action at the ballot box. The other alternative is revolution.)

2. The entity enjoys the ego boost of being treated as an “insider” and is not interested in seeing a solution.

3. The entity sees no hope of change, and is simply warning the people as to what is coming. 4. The entity has been sidetracked, or bought, or threatened, by an inner group that aims to sabotage any attempt to derail the in place corporate plan.

With this in mind consider the 4 possibilities listed above for the NGOs.

1. No experienced observer could be that naïve. There is no way the Liberals or Conservatives will peacefully give up a corporate plan that they have been implementing for years. If we rule out persuasion and revolution you would hope that the entity leaders are not so dimwitted that they cannot see that political action is the only viable option at this time — but yes, maybe some of them cannot see it.

2. This is an ugly thought. I prefer to give all entities the benefit of the doubt.

3. This is an unfortunate possibility. It means that the entity is weak and has given up the fight for what generations of patriots have fought for, and have devoted their lives to handing down to future generations. Nationalism is not a dirty word unless it is used to promote aggression. Canada has a tradition of moderation. Our political system is derived from the old Family Compacts and we are not perfect by a long way, but “Peace, Order and Good Government” is a fine motto to try and live up to, in a democratic rather than fascist manner.

4. This has a number of aspects, on which is pivotally that the entity was established by the corporate planners of the NAU in order to provide a vent for public dissatisfaction so that people of good intent will be lulled into thinking that something concrete is being achieved on their behalf.

This latter proposition is not farfetched, given the resources of the corporate sector and the skill of the long term planning that has gone into bringing the NAU, and the sell-out of Canada’s sovereignty to near fruition. The accumulation of all forms of the media (except the internet) into the hands of 3 or 4 families; the adoption and promotion of the policies of unfettered capitalism; and the subversion of our Bank of Canada into the control of international banking syndicates all speak to a very well thought out plan. It is not likely that such planners will have omitted the provision of a safety valve.

Hence it was never intended that such entities which are vocalizing resistance would effect political action.

This was forcibly brought to my attention when one senior official of an NGO told me that the one political party (Canadian Action Party) that has fought for 10 years to cancel FTA and NAFTA, to halt the progression of the SPP, and to regain control of our monetary sovereignty through the Bank of Canada and has many thousands of members across the country, “was too insignificant to be included” in the group that was appearing to protesting the SPP.

As a subset of the above, it is possible that some entities while being sincere in their objectives, have been infiltrated by subgroups, such as financial supporters or by persons that have attained some measure of internal control, and which wound ensure that actions are watered down or diverted.

The subgroups, would have their own support network either internal or external in the form of partisan supporters of NAFTA and the SPP, or maybe supporters of the Liberal or Conservative parties. A very real case comes to mind, wherein some union supporters of the NDP will support the SPP in order to protect their jobs in the auto industry — which they will allegedly lose if the SPP is defeated; and the American owned auto makers shut down Canadian plants in retaliation.

This reveals a sad case of protecting personal gain before defending national integrity. Maybe that is the rationale that Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling had sold out Norway to Hitler’s Nazi Germany

Reluctantly, unless someone can provide a better analysis or reason for inaction, I am forced to conclude that the reason for civil society gatekeeper inaction lies somewhere in Option 4.

If you are willing to help protect Canadian sovereignty, spread the word about the SPP as far and wide as you can and stand as a candidate and/or vote for the Canadian Action Party that will petition for a referendum on the SPP and make “STOP THE NAU” its central policy plank in the coming general election. Unless we regain control of our money supply and maintain control of our identity and policies, all else will remain out of reach.

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newsletter)

Banking and the Canadian Government

Gerald has done this awesome video on the Bank of Canada and has just updated it further. Of course he mentions CAP so its a great resource for campaiging. He also includes a bit of Bill Abram from his wonderful The Crime of the Canadian Banking System. He also has a plug for Paul Grignon’s excellent Money as Debt. Please forward widely!

Banking and the Canadian Government http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=WPSoQfumzQ0

For those of you who haven’t seen those other videos yet -

Bill Abram

Part 1 The Crime of the Canadian Banking System
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Zl1Wax8MI&feature=related

Part 2 The Great Canadian Experiment
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=9yYEFuN2v08&feature=related

Part 3 Gerald G. McGeer: A True Canadian Hero
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zB7GbM1OgzA&feature=related

Money as Debt
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

Check out the related videos – there’s one of me at Toronto City Council in the summer regarding the new proposed taxes, including a municipal land transfer tax. They didn’t listen to me, but I think I had some influence on the fact that first time buyers are now receiving a rebate municipally & provincially as well for all homes, not just new homes. I guess that’s something…

(Source: Canadian Action Party Newletter)