New Media

They brainwash their members into total submission to the cause. They bully members and outsiders into either joining them or getting out of their way. They use intimidation, threats and violence to get what they want.

They are known by many names: Fire This Time, Youth Third World Alliance, Mobilization Against War and Occupation, and others. They are the hijackers of Canada’s peace movement in Vancouver. Ivan Drury, a former MAWO member who has found the courage to leave this poisonous group told his story earlier in the week. He isn’t the only one to escape from MAWO’s mafia-like organization. Ian Beeching has also been inspired to tell his story of how a Canadian peace group was taken over by people who had far more in common with politicians like Stalin and Mao than Ghandi.

To be sure, I have no complaint with those who sincerely strive for lasting and just peace – as opposed to the sad sort of peace envisioned by certain local “peace” activists; a peace that will reign only after tens of millions have been blown up, burned alive and decapitated in a revolutionary war against the “imperialist” West.

I do have a problem with people, especially the educated lot sprouting out of our universities, who really ought to know better than to get involved with groups like Fire This Time and MAWO in the first place. A capacity for critical thinking is, after all, a requirement for entering an institution of higher learning.

The hijackers of Canada’s peace movement appear to be in for a fight.

Canada’s top soldier is telling certain partisan members of Canada’s political establishment to take a reality check about the Afghanistan mission. According to General Rick Hillier, we won’t be able to hand over their combat role to allied nations and the Afghan National Army in 2009 (Reuters).

“If you’re there, you’re going to be in the middle of a firefight,” he says. “This is the home of the Taliban.” No kidding.

While the likes of Vancouver’s MAWO’s propagandists like to portray the Taliban as heroic freedom fighters in a life and death struggle for self-determination, the truth is that most Afghans aren’t Taliban, most Afghans want and need the international community to help them, and Afghanistan and the rest of the world is undoubtedly better off without the Taliban.

That said, Canadians and the international community ought not to be writing the Afghan government a blank check. Afghan journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh had the audacity to download a report on women’s rights and for this was sentenced to death by an Islamic court.

Canadians can do something about this right now (Thanks to fiery activist Terry Glavin for these detailed instructions): Write Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Harper.S@parl.gc.ca) urging him to take a very hard line on Sayed’s case – he should tell President Karzai that the charges against Sayed should be dropped, or at the very least that he must be assured of a fair trial, and the death sentence be overturned immediately. Write Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, too (BerniM@parl.gc.ca), along with a dignified protest letter to His Excellency Omar Samad, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada (contact@afghanemb-canada.net).

A new Canadian-based front develops in the war of decency and respect for human rights versus fascism and terror: The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee website has officially launched.

Our members believe that Canada’s continuing involvement in the UN-supported mission in Afghanistan is necessary. We have the support of Canadians from across the political spectrum and from all walks of life.

We are concerned that debate in Canada about this mission has excluded Afghans and ignored Afghan public opinion. That debate has been manipulated for partisan reasons by those who have failed to fully consider the consequences for Afghans and for the region if Canadian troops were to withdraw prematurely.

Check out our principles. If you agree with them, please join the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

Congratulations to tireless BC author and journalist Terry Glavin, fearless and eloquent CW4WA activist, organizer and consultant Lauryn Oates, lightning-fast writer and web magician Ian King and website design guru Rob Wilson for their efforts in getting this important work done in record time. My own contribution has been modest by comparison, but I am nonetheless proud to have done my small part.

Climate change and Alberta’s oil sands are on the agenda for Canadian premiers meeting in Vancouver. But will anything of substance be accomplished?

Economic and environmental realities make it pretty unlikely they’ll even be able to cobble together crude principles. BC Premier Gordon Campbell can lecture his Albertan political counterpart all he likes on the dangers of greenhouse gases (although given BC’s record to date on cutting greenhouse gases, that might be a bit odd), but there’s a thirst for Albertan oil out there.

The world needs ever-increasing amounts of oil and Alberta has a big chunk of the planet’s known reserves. That’s going to be a tough reality to face down.

But the way the tar sands oil gets extracted is the cause of a large percentage of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Pressure needs to be put on Albertan oil companies by politicians to ensure that they don’t turn much of western Canada into a polluted desert in return for all the petrodollars they’re earning.

The Manley Panel has delivered its verdict on what Canada should do in Afghanistan, but reporters are already having trouble interpreting its main recommendations. Either that, or certain reporters are pushing their own opinions and cherry-picking clauses in the report to support their own agendas.

According to Reuters, Canada Should Consider End to Afghan Mission.

But the Associated Foreign Press says Canada Calls for Extending Mission in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Associated Press writes that Canadian Report Presses Afghan Mission.

Well, that’s two out of three, anyway. I’ll have to have a look at the actual text of the report, but the overall theme of reportage shows the Manley Report’s guiding ideas seem to largely follow along the lines of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee’s own call to action:

The Committee’s position on Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan, in sum, is this: We must stay. Human rights are universal. The United Nations calls for and expects Canada to remain dedicated to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and to the battle against terrorism there. We recognize that a robust military engagement, with the UN’s sanction and the consent of the Government of Afghanistan, is vital and necessary.

Exactly.