A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

Craig Smith: ‘What are we so unhappy about?”

My mom recently sent me this email explaining how 67% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way their country is going. The author explains that Americans are ’spoiled brats’ because we have so much to be thankful for (electricity, running water, freedoms etc.) and that rather than look at the bigger picture we should be grateful for what our leaders are doing for us. Here is my response. I encourage you to check out the original email from Craig Smith, but essentially it’s neatly disguised pro-bush propaganda. Remember folks, interpret all the information you are exposed to and then come to your own conclusions; don’t let anyone think for you.

Dear Mom,

I like the emphasis on seeing the good and appreciating all that we have. We are truly blessed to be alive in the most exciting time in all of human history. Life is an amazing gift and to be able to truly live in the magic of the moment is what God asks of us. Re-read the 9 steps of spirituality by Brother Wayne Teasdale (I believe i sent this to you a long time ago… i’ll look for it again and re-send it to you)….. When you truly achieve oneness with yourself, with the universe, you have reached step 8. At this point you realize that selfless servitude to others to help them along their spiritual journey so that they may also achieve the oneness/satori/the zen etc… is part and parcel of our own spiritual quest. This means making a difference in the people’s lives that mean the most to you… family and friends can gain much strength from each of us…. However, it also means creating change on a more massive scale. Analyzing the politics/policies/laws/ etc. that impact our fellow man’s ability to be free, to have their basic needs met, and to realize that a MUCH better future is very easily possible if we actually become active members of society is how we can influence change on a major scale that ultimately can help more and more of us wake up from our daze and start to live life passionately again.

In many ways the average canadian/american lives life more comfortably than the wealthiest kings of past eras. In many ways our culture/lifestyle is preventing many of us from fully realizing our potential. There is a massive rise of anxiety and attention deficit disorders, depression, suicide, workplace violence, addiction… According to a 1992 World Health Organization study we are 3 times more likely to become depressed than our grandparents were at our age. A quarter of the US population will experience some symptoms of depression during their lives. While we may have adequate drinking water, police protection, clean hotels, etc. we as humans are still in a state of evolution. We work 8-10 hours a day (many of us in a job that we despise), we come home exhausted, put a microwave dinner in the microwave, turn on the reality t.v. and deep inside wish we were alive. Sure this cozy lifestyle is better than a lot of places in the world that experience great political and military turmoil. But are we truly better off and more ‘free’ than that tribe that was recently discovered in brazil that may be one of the last tribes that has not been exposed to the ‘real world’? The old evolution has always been about the efficiency of society… the agricultural revolution, the industrial/scientific revolution…. the new evolution is about the evolution of the individual… the new evolution is about the individual’s growth in the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical realm. Quantum mechanics (science) has come full circle… science originally branched from religion to seek truth and rationality and to get away from faith based logic….. what science is telling us now is that the power of our minds, the power of love, the power of living life in harmony with ourselves and with each other is helping us to realize the potential of our evolution. We are in the dawn of the new era… the age of aquarius is upon us… the spiritual prophets and visionaries have spoken about this time since the beginning of time. This is a new era of human consciousness…. We need leaders who are truly in tune with humanity, with the planet, with themselves to guide us. The policies of George Bush and Stephen Harper are steeped in corruption and evil… they are not true leaders…  They are not spiritually in tune with themselves, with the planet, or with humanity as a whole…George bush can go to church every single sunday but it doesn’t take a prophet to recognize that he is spiritually empty. We are all spiritual beings and we are no better or worse than any one else, therefore we cannot judge. However, we can recognize when someone is ‘in tune’ and we have to use our judgement when electing leaders, especially the leaders who make the most impact on all of humanity and the planet. We have much to be extremely grateful for, but if our good fortune is at the stake of someone else’s than we can not be truly satisfied until everyone has the same opportunities to be free and to pursue their spiritual journey. Killing the taliban and replacing them with warlords is not the solution… how long will it take before we wake up and learn from our mistakes? A visionary like Depak Chopra makes wonderful arguments about the political force of love and spirituality, and 4 years under the guidance and leadership of a man like him could make the whole world wake up. Big business, big agriculture, big pharma, big industry, big oil have benefited from spiritually inept, corrupt, dishonest, deceitful, evil ‘leaders’ like bush, reagan, harper etc. for too long. Unfortunately when a visionary leader comes into power in a country like venezuela or guatemala and tries to free their people from the chains of american ‘big’ interests, they get assassinated. The CIA has mingled in the affairs of every leader who displays courage, a desire for change, a desire to truly help the poor and disenfranchised and the CIA has readily admitted to doing unspeakable things. Read the book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” to learn more about this, and to verify any doubts you may have. The countries that we love so much have done many horrible and unspeakable things around the world because of the greed and lust for power that our system creates. I love life to the brim; without living in a location as free as Vancouver I likely would not have evolved into the person that I am today. That being said, I think we need to look at the direction that we are headed in as a country and find the strength to do what is right…. in our day to day lives as well as on the political scene.

I have hope for obama. he sounds like he speaks the truth. I am also hesitant to place complete trust in him. I know that he is backed by a lot of very powerful men. I also know that he is upsetting a lot of very powerful men. I hope he is able to initiate major change, and I hope he is able to open up the eyes, the minds and the hearts of the American people to help America as a whole lose their ego. Disconnection from our ego is a very potent spiritual message delivered by many very wise spiritual men and women, and America as a whole needs to lose its ego. Gorbachev referred to it as America’s “winning complex”, the idea that America believes it is the best and needs to always win and be the best. This is a horrible trait in an individual…. arrogant, snotty, ignorant, bullyish, naive….. and it is very evident to the rest of the world that America displays these same traits in both their domestic and foreign policies. Neither America or Israel are any more God’s chosen people than the Australians, the Argentinians, the Bangladesh, the Rawandans, etc. and it is blasphemous to believe that. We are all God’s children, and until America the great wakes up, realizes that, and truly starts to act like that I will continue to be critical.

Yes we are extremely lucky… Yes there is a lot more goodness in our lives than bad… However, the arguments made by Craig Smith are redundant, superficial, and are part of the ‘old-paradigm’ evolution that  needs to be subject to de-emphasis. Sure, pumping money and fear into a war on terror might protect us from terrorists this year, maybe next, maybe even the next year. But eventually we need to take a step back and critically analyze the real issues that are causing terrorism because this ’shield’ is artificial and will crack.

There are many authors, visionaries, poets, politicians etc. that communicate on a very deep level and are very worthy of all of our attention.

Canada must withdraw from ‘inhumane’ war: Taliban spokesman

A Taliban spokesman is urging Canadians to pressure their government to pull its troops out of war-torn Afghanistan.

In an interview with CBC News, Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Canadians are involved in the war only because the United States influenced them to join.

“I ask the Canadian people to ask their government to stop their destructive and inhumane mission and withdraw your troops,” said Ahmadi, speaking on his cellphone from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

“Our war will continue as long as your occupation forces are in our land.”

Ahmadi, considered by Western media outlets to be a legitimate representative of the Taliban central council, said the Taliban will continue to fight occupation forces until they are driven out of the country, just as the Afghan mujahedeen resistance continued to fight Russian troops until they withdrew in the 1980s.

Ahmadi said if the public knew the truth about the Afghan war, they would be horrified.

He said NATO countries are hiding the true number of casualties they’ve had since the mission began in 2001.

Killing more civilians

He also argued that while NATO accuses the Taliban of killing more civilians than soldiers with their suicide bombing, the United States is killing even more civilians when it bombs villages and towns.

“I invite you to contact these people in the villages; you can find out for yourself,” he said.

Independent Canadian military analyst Sunil Ram said some of Ahmadi’s points are not completely off base. Ram said independent studies show that the American military has underestimated the number of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded.

Ram said Canada’s tally of dead soldiers is accurate — a total of 85 soldiers have been killed since Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan in February, 2002.

But Ram noted that the number of wounded has never been made clear.

He also agrees that the U.S. has done widespread bombings during the mission.

“The Americans will come in and flatten a village,” he said. “It’s standard tactic.”

Eradication of poppies ’secondary’

Ahmadi also touched on the Afghan drug trade in his interview with CBC News, denying the allegations that the Taliban are funded by profits from poppy crops and the heroin trade.

He said that while the Taliban are against the drug trade, because they are Islamic, the organization is not focused on eradicating Afghanistan’s numerous poppy fields.

“Our priority is to expel the foreign soldiers who have invaded our countries,” he said. “At the moment, eradication of the poppies is a secondary issue.”

Bush highlights bond between U.S. and Israel in speech

America’s support for Israel and its right to self-defence is unshakeable, U.S. President George W. Bush told the Mideast country’s parliament on Thursday.
Addressing the Knesset in Jerusalem as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations, Bush condemned anti-Semitism and anyone who questioned the Jewish state’s right to exist, as well as those “who quietly excuse them.”

“We believe that free people should strive and sacrifice for peace. So we applaud the courageous choices Israeli leaders have made.

“We also believe that nations have a right to defend themselves and that no nation should ever be forced to negotiate with killers pledged to its destruction,” Bush said to powerful applause.

He said the war on terror is an ancient ideological battle between good and evil, citing opponents such as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Bush reaffirmed his uncompromising position on negotiating with “terrorists and radicals,” drawing comparisons between the present and the beginning of the Second World War.

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared, ‘Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided,’” Bush said, referring to comments by Idaho Senator William Borah, a Republican.

“We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

He said that while Israel’s population may be just over seven million, “When you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong because the United States of America stands with you.”
Last-ditch effort to promote peace

Bush’s five-day Mideast journey, which includes visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is part of his ongoing effort to drive Mideast peace talks forward as he approaches the end of his tenure.

Although he made no mention of the peace negotiations in his speech, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told Reuters the president remained “hopeful” a deal could be struck by the time he leaves office in early 2009.
Bush’s repeated and unequivocal declarations of support for Israel on Thursday, however, could serve to further undermine his reputation as a peace broker to Palestinians, who received only passing mention in the president’s address, the CBC’s Peter Armstrong reported from Jerusalem.

With the speech coming as the two groups try to advance peace talks, “the Palestinians are going to be quick to point out that [Bush] had a lot of support for the Israelis, unflagging support, and not even a mention of them and their struggle,” Armstrong said.

As Israelis continued their anniversary celebrations, Palestinians held events across the Palestinian territories on Thursday to commemorate what they call “nakba,” which is Arabic for catastrophe.

“Primarily at the heart of the nakba is the question of 60 years of dispossession and of loss, they say, and frustration — they still don’t have that second state that was supposed to emerge in 1948,” Armstrong said, referring to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were driven out of their homes during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.

In Bethlehem, Palestinian gatherers released 2000 black helium balloons, each containing a small message pledging their commitment to the struggle to return to their homes. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands stood in silence in downtown Manara Square as a siren wailed, and then listened to a taped speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, three Arab legislators were ushered out of the Knesset chamber when they held up a sign that read “We shall overcome” during Bush’s speech.

The American president also took the opportunity Thursday to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions, saying in his speech it would be an “unforgivable betrayal for future generations” to allow it to possess some of the world’s deadliest weapons.

PM’s plan will increase troops, update equipment

This war-mongering excuse for a Canadian P.M. has got to go….

Harper unveiled the plan at an armoury in Halifax on Monday, alongside Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

“As the name implies the first priority of our Canada First Defence Strategy is to strengthen our ability to defend our country and protect our citizens,” Harper said.

“The bottom line is that we will substantially strengthen the Canadian Forces, we will gradually increase the number of regular troops and reservists and provide them with more and better equipment to make them as effective and safe as possible.”

Spending on the military will increase to $30 billion over the next 20 years, Harper said.

Part of that money will go to a strategy to recruit greater numbers of regular and reserve force troops — including efforts such as a new television ad campaign currently running.

MacKay said the federal government’s military shopping list includes search-and-rescue planes, combat helicopters and new fighter aircraft to replace Canada’s CF-18 fighters.

In addition, Harper said, the plan will enhance the Canadian Forces’ ability to carry-out surveillance and security in the north and will improve Canada’s ability to contribute to global security and meet its commitments on continental security.

Canada is fortunate in many ways to have a defence alliance with the United Stated that has been nurtured for decades by governments both Conservative and Liberal,” Harper said.

“This relationship however, only works if it is governed by mutual respect, and the way to earn that respect is to ensure Canada shoulders its fair share of the burden of defencing North America.

The prime minister also said the plan will create thousands of jobs for Canadians, thereby providing a boost to the economy.

Critical thinking ….

I would like to add a very important side-note (especially with regards to the recent posts I have made…. )

I think the most important skill we can develop today is the ability to think critically. The ability to absorb information and then ask the appropriate questions to (attempt to) ascertain the authenticity and validity of the information cannot be stressed enough. First and foremost…. learning to recognize the bias inherent in all sorts of media is vitally important. Certain media outlets are considered by “experts” to be more reliable and credible than others: BBC is considered by many to be the “spinach” of the media diet, while Fox news is deemed by many as the “fastfood” alternative. Media outlets are ‘regulated’, and are supposed to live up to certain journalistic standards. Whether these media outlets are being held accountable to these standards is anyone’s guess, but there certainly seems to be a lot of speculation that they are not. Reported incidents of ‘propaganda’ and factual distortion have been quite rampant over the past 60 years on many of the major news networks. That being said, I have seen some wonderful examples of truly investigative journalism from even the biggest media outlets. The problem, however, is that the ‘bread and butter’ of mainstream media’s quality investigative journalism is usually buried behind a main section article on Britney Spears, or is strategically located on a page with glossy advertising aimed at taking your attention off the targeted article. Regardless, understanding who stands to gain from the outcome of the article is usually a good place to start when becoming an informed, critically thinking, media consumer.

When viewing information on the internet we must also be extremely careful; being a completely unregulated source of media has its pros and cons. The credibility of internet ‘authors’ is always questionable. Are these people ‘experts’ on the given topic? What are their credentials? Why do they want me to believe their point of view? These are all good questions to ask and as you begin your quest for truth you will find it necessary to conduct further research to determine the validity of certain quotes, certain historical facts, certain details that could easily be manipulated.

Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador: Slaughter of Farc leaders will stymie the peace process

“The deaths of two senior Farc leaders will stymie the peace process and any hope for release for Farc’s hostages.

 The deaths of Raúl Reyes and Julián Conrado, two senior figures in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), are clearly a serious blow to the guerrilla organisation. It will now call a halt to the release of hostages held by the Farc in the jungle over many years, a process that had been proceeding slowly under the auspices of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Freedom in the short term for the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in which the French president Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a personal interest, now seems unlikely, and many people believe that she is dying. Hopes of the imminent release of three US defence contractors have also been dashed.

By all accounts, the midnight attack on the camp of the Farc leaders, a mile inside Ecuadorean territory in the jungle region south of the Putumayo river, was a political decision taken by the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, to end the peace process orchestrated by Chávez. Four Colombian politicians, held as hostages by the Farc for the past six years, were released last week and given a royal welcome in Caracas. Reyes had been among those who organised their freedom. Killed at the age of 59, Reyes had long been more of a diplomat than a guerrilla commander, though he was often photographed in military fatigues and carrying a gun.

noam chomsky: distorted morality

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4054523048548733881

we watched this chomsky lecture filmed at harvard last night. The man really does his research! Check it out

“No End In Sight” – another great, disturbing documentary

No End in Sight is a documentary film that concentrates on alleged mistakes made by the Bush administration in the two-to-three-month period following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The film portrays these errors as the cause of ensuing problems in Iraq, such as the rise of the insurgency, a lack of security and basic utilities for many Iraqis, sectarian violence and the risk of complete civil war.
To a large extent the film consists of interviews with the people who were involved in the initial Iraqi occupation authority and the ORHA (the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, later replaced by the CPA, the Coalition Provisional Authority). 35 people are interviewed, many of them former Bush loyalists who have since become disillusioned by what they experienced at the time. In particular, many of those interviewed claim that the inexperience of the core members of the Bush administration—and their refusal to seek, acknowledge or accept input from more experienced outsiders—was at the root of the disastrous occupation effort.
Among those interviewed are
▪ General Jay Garner, who briefly ran the reconstruction before being replaced by L. Paul Bremer
▪ Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who was placed in charge of the Baghdad embassy
▪ Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of the State Department
▪ Robert Hutchings, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council
▪ Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff
▪ Col. Paul Hughes, who worked in the ORHA and then the CPA
According to No End in Sight, there were three especially grave mistakes made by L. Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA:
▪ A move toward “De-Ba’thification” in the early stages of the occupation. Saddam Hussein’s ruling Ba’th Party counted as its members a huge majority of Iraq’s governmental employees, including educational officials and some teachers. By order of the CPA, these skilled and ultimately apolitical individuals were banned from holding any positions in Iraq’s new government.
▪ Not providing enough troops to maintain order. The looting of Iraqi museums sent chilling signals to the average Iraqi, telling them that the American forces did not intend to maintain law and order. And arms depots were available for pillaging by anyone who wanted weapons and explosives.
▪ The disbanding of the Iraqi Army, which made 500,000 young men with weapons and training unemployed and bitter. Many of them decided that their best chance for a future was to join or, together with the rest of their unit, become a militia force.
The film cites these three mistakes, as well as many others, as the cause of the rapid deterioration of occupied Iraq into chaos.

List of documentaries to watch and spread

A good friend of mine recommended that we compile a list of informative and accessible documentaries that coincide with the aims of the fungus in the hopes of raising as much awareness as possible. He compiled this list of documentaries that are available on the internet at various locations. Thanks so much C for the info.

Here are various websites where many of these documentaries are available:
- Ovguide
- movie alien
- joox
- Divxlive
- Weatherwars.info
- Alex jones websites
- Infowars
- Prison planet
- Vancouver9-11truth.org
- Commondreams.org
- skolnicksreport

Here are the recommended documentaries. I haven’t seen many of them yet, so I can’t comment too much on them. Remember that thinking critically is always the key when attempting to decipher the information from any media source.

- Hacking Democracy
- America: Freedom to Fascism
- Who killed John O’Neill
- The Weather Underground
- JFK: The Bush Connection
- Alex Jones: Endgame, Matrix of Evil, Terrorstorm, and many others…
- FEMA – Concentration Camps
- Banking with Nazis
- The Panama Deception
- Decoding the past – secrets of the dollar bill
- Illuminazi
- The Illuminati
- The History of Freemasonry
- WMD: Weapons of mass deception
- The Secret NASA transmissions
- The Future of Food

I will be making a conscious effort to write more on the blog…..
until the next episode,

D-Fungus

LOVE truly is the answer my friends

This is an article I wrote. The ‘beautiful game’ refers to soccer:

If the majority of scientists and economists are correct in their analysis of global warming trends, the planet is facing a significant environmental and socio-economic crisis in the years to come. If what we are told is true, we have a very short window of opportunity (scientists estimate 10 – 20 years) in which to eliminate our bad habits in order to save the planet. We have a purpose; we are, and I say this very humbly, the most important generation to walk the planet. Think of ten years over the course of human history: It is merely a momentary blip; a blink of an eye over the course of a cosmic millennium. And you and I, for whatever reason, are alive and breathing during this most precious and scary and exhilarating of times. The way our generation conducts business as well as the way our generation conducts our own individual lives is integral to the success or the demise of the planet. Still don’t think you have a purpose?

10 steps to fascism… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch (45mins.)

A lecture by Naomie Wolf, author of “End of America, A letter of Warning for a Young Patriot” at the University of Washington. She has carefully studied the political and social environments that led to the ‘installment’ of totalitarian regimes in the 20th Century (Stalin, Mussollini, Polpot, Hitler and numerous other ’smaller’ dictators) and concludes that there is a blue print of 10 characteristics that each of these regimes has followed. All 10 of these characteristics were present in the lead up to all of the totalitarian regimes, and all 10 are currently present in America right now… YOU are NEEDED to save democracy in America. Action needs to be taken immediately.

senate bill 1959: this shit is unbelievable…

The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It’s a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent. All over the internet, intelligent people who care about freedom are speaking out against this extremely dangerous law: Philip Giraldi at the Huffington Post, Declan McCullagh at CNET’s News.com, Kathryn Smith at OpEdNews.com, and of course Alex Jones at PrisonPlanet.com

Liberty Vs. Security

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Don’t want to be a War Criminal

AWOL U.S. soldier seeks refugee status

American finds hope in NDP MP Libby Davies’ lobbying efforts

Andy Ivens

The Province

Monday, December 03, 2007

CREDIT: Nick Procaylo, The Province American soldier Brad McCall, 20, arrived in Vancouver in early October as a conscientious objector.

Uncle Sam wants Brad McCall.

The U.S. Army wants the AWOL private from Kentucky to go to Iraq to fight George W. Bush’s “war on terror,” but McCall’s conscience won’t allow it.

He applied to be a conscientious objector, but as his date to ship out approached, McCall realized that, like many other “COs,” he’d be in the war zone before a decision came down.

So, in early October, the six-foot-two GI followed the route of an estimated 50,000 previous American war resisters to Vancouver and applied for refugee status, which at least delays his possible extradition to the U.S., where he’d likely be tried for desertion.

“I don’t want to go to Iraq because I don’t want to be a war criminal,” McCall, 20, said yesterday.

“Any participation in the war in Iraq can be punishable as a war crime. The war is a criminal act, in my opinion and many countries’ opinion.”

McCall thinks the army recruiters who convinced him to sign up last year stretched the truth.

“We were told we probably wouldn’t be going to Iraq because [the war] was ending,” he said.

While posted at Fort Carson, Colo., “I heard the atrocities being committed on innocent people and soldiers laughing about that.”

That prompted him to apply for conscientious-objector status.

“They just laughed at me,” he said. “So I took the necessary steps and took off.”

His family has virtually disowned him, but he has found an esprit de corps in Vancouver.

“My parents and I don’t really communicate much,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of people here who have given me a lot of support.”

He’s been put up in the east Vancouver home of Colleen Fuller.

“I called the War Resisters Support Campaign [www.resisters.ca] and she volunteered her house for [an AWOL] soldier. I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

If he returned to the U.S., McCall figures he’d face a court martial and be ordered to serve “a few years” in the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Asked what he would like the Canadian government to do with the growing number of war resisters in Canada, McCall said: “Take us in. Do what Canada used to do in ’70s. Be a haven from militarism.”

Last month, the first two American military deserters to ask Canadian courts to allow them to stay in this country — Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey — received bad news from the Supreme Court of Canada.

The high court declined them leave to appeal a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal on their application for refugee status.

One crucial difference between the deserters who fled north during the Vietnam War and today’s resisters appears to be the evolution of the U.S. Army from a conscript force to today’s all-volunteer service, the court noted in its reasons.

“I was shocked,” said McCall, who remains “optimistic” that Canadians will convince their federal politicians to amend the refugee provisions of the law.

He has Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies in his corner.

“With their legal avenues pretty well exhausted, that’s absolutely the right direction to take — lobbying for change to the law to allow resisters to apply for landed-

immigrant status,” said Davies.

“We [New Democrat MPs] have a motion right now before the Citizenship and Immigration Committee that, if approved, would create a special category for war resisters that would allow them to stay in Canada.”

The motion — “to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members . . . who have refused or left military service related to the war in Iraq, to apply to remain and work in Canada and be eligible for permanent resident status” — will go before the committee later this week.

If the committee endorses the motion, said Davies, “we would then get that into the House [of Commons] and get the House to adopt it. There are many, many well-known Canadians who have made amazing contributions to this country who came here as war resisters.”

She suggested people write Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finlay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and their own MPs to voice support for the motion.

Colleen Fuller urged others to join the war-resisters campaign.

“The [Hinzman and Hughey] decision is bad for anybody, not just Americans,” she said. “Normally, Canada goes by the United Nations. That’s why we didn’t go to Iraq — because the UN didn’t see that as a legal way to go.”

The U.S. Pentagon refused to comment on McCall’s case.

aivens@png.canwest.com

9/11: An Inside Job?

“I’m open to coordinated activity in secret places…but I don’t believe in secrecy.”