CEASEFIRE.CA UPDATE: November 12, 2014

[Oscar]

CEASEFIRE.CA UPDATE: November 12, 2014

1) Bill C-622, the CSEC Accountability and Transparency Act, defeated at second reading
[ http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=20040 ]
Posted on November 6, 2014
The Private Member’s Bill C-622, also known as the CSEC Accountability and Transparency Act, sponsored by Liberal MP Joyce Murray, was defeated at the second reading stage yesterday, November 5th, in the House of Commons. One hundred and twenty MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 142 (all of them members of the Conservative caucus) voted against it. One Conservative MP voted in favour.
Click here to read the official transcript of the vote:
[ http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications ... e=E&Mode=1 ]

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2) Ceasefire.ca supporters speak out against Harper’s new “anti-terrorism” legislation
[ http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=20035 ] November 10, 2014

Last week we asked Ceasefire.ca supporters to write to their local media insisting that Prime Minister Harper not exploit the recent tragic killings of two Canadian soldiers to push through new anti-terrorism laws that would give draconian powers to police and spy agencies. Thank you to everyone who submitted letters to the editors of newspapers across Canada!

Here’s what some of you had to say:

Ruth Kunz, Porters Lake, Halifax Chronicle Herald, November 1, 2014
Capitalizing on terror
Like the true neo-con that he is, it seems Stephen Harper is about to take advantage of recent events to bring in more restrictions on civil rights and further erode our democracy. He could, however, restore stronger gun-control laws. That would be a plus.

Tashanna Ducharme, Vancouver, National Post, November 1, 2014
Re: Terror Bill Will Draw Heat, John Ivison, Oct. 25.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s admission that his new anti-terror bill was “already being drafted,” suggests that his government had planned to take away our civil liberties all along, not just as a reaction to the recent attack. I’m afraid that all of my years as a protester and advocate now means that I fall into the category of potentially being rounded up, should non-violent protest and outspoken criticism suddenly become suspect. I’m dismayed that more Canadians are not up in arms over this.

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3) “This Remembrance Day I’ll wear two poppies: one red and one white”
[ http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=20064 ] November 11, 2014

Michael French, a veteran who served for 25 years with the Royal Canadian Navy, discusses on CBC Radio why he wears both a red and a white poppy on Remembrance Day:

"Last year I wore two poppies: one red and one white. This year, I intend to do it again. Some claim the white poppy is disrespectful to veterans and to the fallen. It’s a trumped-up controversy designed to have citizens outraged over trifles to divert attention away from the real disrespect meted out to veterans every day.

Under the new Veterans Charter, ongoing pensions for wounded soldiers have been replaced with lump-sum payments. Veterans Affairs offices have been closed. We have now lost more Afghanistan veterans to suicide than were lost to enemy action.

So why did I wear two poppies, and why will I do it again?

For me, the red poppy represents the sacrifice of the fallen; the white poppy represents the hope for a better future where young soldiers, sailors, and air crew do not have to die.

I’ll wear two poppies because I believe that the two sides of the Remembrance Day narrative need to be balanced, because I honour the sacrifice of veterans and their fallen comrades. I believe that the lives of young Canadian service folk should not be sacrificed lightly.

I’ll wear two poppies because I reject the antics of the professional rage artists who deflect our attention from real issues. But mostly, I’ll wear two poppies to take a stand against the phony outrage intended to shame those who would wear a white poppy. If not for that, I doubt I’d have gone to the trouble of tracking down a white poppy.

[...]

As we approach Remembrance Day, we will be reminded again and again that those who served and those who never came home were defending our freedom. I agree. And I can think of no greater disrespect to veterans and to their fallen comrades than to self-censor on Remembrance Day of all days. I will not dishonour the sacrifice of the fallen by fearfully laying aside the freedom they won at such cost.

That’s why this Remembrance Day I’ll wear two poppies: one red and one white.”

Listen to the full statement on CBC Radio’s The 180:
[ http://www.cbc.ca/the180/excerpts/2014/ ... ach-other/ ]

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4) Unfriendly fire: The casualty of war Ottawa would rather forget
[ http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=20079 ]
November 13, 2014
Ambassador (ret’d) Paul Heinbecker reflects on the death of a Canadian peacekeeper at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces and how the current government seems to have forgotten about his sacrifice (“Unfriendly fire: The casualty of war Ottawa would rather forget“, iPolitics, 11 November 2014): [ http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/11/unfr ... er-forget/ ]:

On this Remembrance Day, I am remembering one Canadian peacekeeper in particular — someone the Harper government probably prefers to forget.

Major Paeta Hess von Kruedener was killed (along with three other UN observers) by the Israelis in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan characterized the attack as “deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces.”

The UN, from senior executives in New York down to the UN forces on the ground, had warned the Israelis repeatedly that day (a dozen times, I was told by UN officials) that their artillery fire was endangering UN officers.

The Israelis ended up dropping a bomb on the UN position, killing all four observers. On February 6, 2008, following a Department of Defence Board of Inquiry (BOI), Cynthia, the wife of Major Hess von Kruedener, issued a statement:

“… Just so we’re clear, “the incident” refers to the 500 lb, precision-guided bomb that was dropped on the UN bunker containing my husband and his fellow Peace Keepers, who were unarmed and serving the world community in the pursuit of peace.”

[...]

The full report of the Board of Inquiry was quietly removed from the Department of National Defence website. What is left there is a news release that quotes then-Chief of the Defence Staff Rick Hillier calling the incident “a tragic accident” — a description that Mrs. Hess von Kruedener’s statement flatly rejects, as do the politically inconvenient facts.

Mrs. Hess von Kruedener appealed to Parliament to “debate the findings of the Board of Inquiry, and through our Foreign Minister, take this issue to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.” She urged Members of Parliament to “make the safety of peacekeepers a priority.”

To our collective shame, nothing was done.

The Harper government seems content to let this particular sacrifice disappear in the mists of time. Lest we remember.”

Read the full article here:
[ http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/11/unfr ... er-forget/ ]