Geopolitics/War, Tyranny

Harper government hid secret customs agreement with China; wants Canadians ignorant

Harper government quietly signed customs agreement with China

Jacques Bourbeau
Global News : December 4, 2014

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government quietly signed a customs-sharing agreement with China without announcing it to the public, Global News has learned.

And the move has experts worried about the consequences to Canada’s security.

At the end of Harper’s trip to China in November, the government sent out a news release proudly detailing the progress made and agreements signed, including initiatives to strengthen commercial ties and increase exports.

But Harper made no mention of the agreement to share customs information with China, whereas similar agreements involving Israel and the European Union were widely disseminated.

The deal has many experts scratching their heads.

“China has for years been doing a tremendous job of stealing some of our technology,” said Garry Clement, a former RCMP superintendent with 30 years in the force.

“We’ve got a tremendous amount of counterfeit goods that we all know comes out of China. So I guess where my concern would come in is: what is the amount of intelligence that we’re actually going to share with them? And what (are) the controls we’re going to put on it, and how does that impact our relationship?”

There are many examples of Chinese attempts to steal hi-tech goods, blueprints and computer data.

Last year, a China-born naval architect, Qing Quentin Huang, was arrested for trying to smuggle information about Canada’s arctic patrol ships back to the Chinese government.

And Su Bin, a Chinese businessman, is accused of stealing data on the F-35 fighter jet and trying to sell it to Chinese state-owned companies.

Experts such as Charles Burton, an associate professor of Canada-China relations at Brock University, are asking why Canada is ready to share customs information with a government that is trying to evade our border cops.

“I’m hard-pressed to know why it is that Canada feels it would be in our interest to share information on senstitive matters of interdiction of illegal exports and other customs-related matters with the Chinese state, who would likely pass it on to exactly the people that we are hoping to prevent from doing this kind of illegal activity,” Burton said.

(read the full article at Global News)

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Health/Environment

Majority of flu vaccinations don’t work, admits CDC

The CDC Says The Current Flu Vaccine Everyone’s Taking Might Be A Bad Match For The Virus

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters: December 3, 2014

A sampling of flu cases so far this season suggests the current flu vaccine may not be a good match for the seasonal flu strain currently circulating in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.

The U.S. health agency issued a health advisory to doctors noting that flu virus samples the agency took from Oct. 1 through Nov. 22, showed that just under half were a good match for the current influenza A flu strain contained in the current H3N2lu shots for 2014-2015, suggesting the virus has drifted.

In past seasons when the influenza A strain has mutated, the vaccine has been less effective, the CDC said in the advisory.

(read the full article at Business Insider)

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Tyranny

Stephen Harper quietly scraps a pledge of transparency

Public hearings on the prime minister’s Supreme Court nominees were a hallmark of Harper’s accountability promise, but now they’re gone.

Stephen Harper quietly scraps a pledge of transparency

Tim Harper
The Star: November 30, 2014

There was always less than met the eye in Stephen Harper’s use of a parliamentary committee to vet his Supreme Court nominees.

The MPs could not overturn the nomination, they were given precious little time to prepare for the hearing and they often veered into partisan show instead of substance.

Likely few Canadians paid much attention.

But they did provide some accountability and transparency to the process, a key commitment by the prime minister and something his party had pushed while in opposition.

The hearings have proved disposable. They are now gone. Montreal lawyer Suzanne Côté was appointed last week without a hearing, the second time in six months Harper bypassed the system he created.

If hearings were largely a facade, they were nevertheless a facade Harper embraced and his disposal of them illustrate two key points about a prime minister soon to mark nine years in office.

When things don’t go Harper’s way, his impulse is to just toss the initiative away rather than try to fix it.

And it is but the latest example of Harper governing in a manner he railed against while in opposition.

Essentially the hearings are gone because of a previous leak to the Globe and Mail of names under consideration by the government in an earlier vacancy.

What made the leak particularly newsworthy was that it showed that four of the six names on the government list were ineligible to sit on the top court.

When that was pointed out by NDP justice critic Françoise Boivin, Justice Minister Peter MacKay shot back that the committee may have been behind the leak.

He said the process was impugned and those who may have wanted to be considered would not put their names forward for fear they would be leaked.

“What I say about the necessity of preserving the integrity of the system, it was very much a consideration . . . when I read in the Globe and Mail that our list that we were working from, that you and other members were a part of forming, was leaked,” he told Liberal Sean Casey, who had to remind the minister he was not even involved in the process.

Irwin Cotler, the former Liberal justice minister says the lack of transparency and accountability in the last two appointments (including Clément Gascon in June) involved no transparency or accountability and represents “a serious regression to a process that is secret, unaccountable and unrepresentative.”

By cutting the parliamentary selection committee, opposition MPs no longer had a stake in the process, meaning the committee hearings could lead to embarrassing questions about Harper’s selection.

So the whole process had to go.

Ten years ago, MacKay was calling for greater transparency in the making of Supreme Court appointments, but that was MacKay in 2004.

More notably, Stephen Harper of 2014 is not the Stephen Harper of 2004.

He has walked away from previous commitments to accountability when things didn’t go his way.

He fulfilled a promise to create a commission to develop guidelines and oversee major federal appointments, but when his nominee as chair, business magnate Gwyn Morgan, was rejected by a parliamentary committee, Harper shelved the commitment.

Harper was the man in opposition who condemned the Liberals for tabling omnibus bills, but in majority government he has used them more often and made them larger.

He vowed Senate reform, then stacked the Upper Chamber, setting records for patronage appointments until that all blew up.

Just last week, the one-time champion of accountability ensured Canadians would not be told the cost of our mission to degrade the Islamic State as part of an allied air bombing effort.

(read the full article at The Star)

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Corporate Welfare, Tyranny

Feds Prepare Canadian Wheat Board for corporate takeover, sans compensation

Foreign multinational could assume control without reimbursing Canadian farmers, taxpayers

Canadian Wheat Board prepares for corporate takeover

Janyce McGregor
CBC News : December 1, 2014

They called it “Marketing Freedom Day”: Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in a Saskatchewan field and vowed that Prairie grain farmers would “never, never again” suffer at the hands of the Canadian Wheat Board.

What the politicians weren’t saying in 2012, when the monopoly that controlled where farmers could sell their product sank into the horizon, was that the liberation wouldn’t stop there.

Farmers and Canadian taxpayers will soon be completely free of the wheat board’s assets — but not with a conventional sale.

Under a sort of reverse-nationalization plan now taking shape behind closed doors, a private-sector investor will assume control without reimbursing the federal treasury for assets Canadians paid for, or at least indirectly financed.

Little is known about the board’s current financial health, because Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz exercises power given to him in 2011 to withhold information “detrimental to commercial interests.”

A report Ritz submitted to Parliament last July contained no financial statements. Many big players in the international grain business aren’t publicly traded.

How did this happen?

2011’s Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act gave a revamped wheat board — purged of farmer-elected directors and now run by a board of Harper government appointees — until 2016 to come up with a privatization plan and until 2017 to implement it. Otherwise, it will be dissolved.
Stephen Harper ends wheat board

Prime Minster Stephen Harper celebrated with Kindersley, Sask., farmers Robin, left, and Brenda Walde, right, on Aug. 1, 2012: the first day Canadian wheat, durum and barley growers were free to sell their grain on an open market. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)

Parties involved in the talks are bound by confidentiality agreements.

The board’s website says it is “fast-tracking” and “intends to beat that deadline.”

President Ian White, who’s overseen recent purchases of new grain-handling facilities, wants to accelerate the process for fear the organization will be wound up.

With an uncertain future, farmers may be reluctant to sell it their grain. Post-monopoly, CWB has needed help from larger grain companies.

‘You can get cash from the sale of something, or you can get a return over the years as the economy grows.’- Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz

The board wants a large, international player as its majority partner. Any investment from that partner will remain within the newly privatized company it controls.

And grain farmers participating in a new farmer equity plan will have only a minority stake.

Fast-tracking could also see a deal before the next federal election. But this is not the sort of privatization that helps balance government books

(read the full article at CBC)

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Health/Environment

Report says fracking risk on par with thalidomide and asbestos

Historic innovations that have been adopted too hastily with grave unforeseen impacts provide cautionary examples for potential side effects of fracking, says report by government’s chief scientist Mark Walport

Fracking risk compared to thalidomide and asbestos in Walport report

Fracking carries potential risks on a par with those from thalidomide, tobacco and asbestos, warns a report produced by the government’s chief scientific adviser.

The flagship annual report by the UK’s chief scientist, Mark Walport, argues that history holds many examples of innovations that were adopted hastily and later had serious negative environmental and health impacts.

The controversial technique, which involves pumping chemicals, sand and water at high pressure underground to fracture shale rock and release the gas within, has been strongly backed by the government with David Cameron saying the UK is “going all out for shale”.

But environmentalists fear that fracking could contaminate water supplies, bring heavy lorry traffic to rural areas, displace investment in renewable energy and accelerate global warming.

The chief scientific adviser’s report appears to echo those fears. “History presents plenty of examples of innovation trajectories that later proved to be problematic — for instance involving asbestos, benzene, thalidomide, dioxins, lead in petrol, tobacco, many pesticides, mercury, chlorine and endocrine-disrupting compounds…” it says.

“In all these and many other cases, delayed recognition of adverse effects incurred not only serious environmental or health impacts, but massive expense and reductions in competitiveness for firms and economies persisting in the wrong path.”

Thalidomide was one of the worst drug scandals in modern history, killing 80,000 babies and maiming 20,000 babies after it was taken by expectant mothers.

Fracking provides a potentially similar example today, the report warns: “… innovations reinforcing fossil fuel energy strategies — such as hydraulic fracturing — arguably offer a contemporary prospective example.”

The chapter, written by Prof Andrew Stirling of the University of Sussex, also argues that the UK and the world could tackle climate change with energy efficiency and renewable energy alone but vested interests in the fossil fuel industry stand in the way.

[…]

Greenpeace UK’s energy campaigner, Louise Hutchins, said: “This is a naked-emperor moment for the government’s dash to frack. Ministers are being warned by their own chief scientist that we don’t know anywhere near enough about the potential side effects of shale drilling to trust this industry. The report is right to raise concerns about not just the potential environmental and health impact but also the economic costs of betting huge resources on an unproven industry. Ministers should listen to this appeal to reason and subject their shale push to a sobering reality check.”

(read the full article at The Guardian)

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Geopolitics/War, Privacy, Tyranny

Canada: shooting used to justify tyranny after terrorism warning results in no extra security

Ottawa shooting: Federal security chiefs warned days before attack

Terry Milewski
CBC News: November 24, 2014

A top-level federal memo warning of a potential “violent act of terrorism in Canada” was distributed by the prime minister’s staff five days before last month’s attack on Parliament Hill, according to a copy obtained by CBC News.

The memo was circulated on the evening of Friday, Oct. 17 — three days before the Oct. 20 hit-and-run attack in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., by Martin Couture-Rouleau and five days before the Oct. 22 shooting in Ottawa by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

The alert directed security staff to ensure extra vigilance and strict compliance with security protocols. That included the updating of communications lines and emergency numbers to “ensure readiness in the case of an incident.”

It is not clear what, if any, action was taken as a result of the federal alert. Security experts have cited a lack of vigilance on Parliament Hill when Zehaf-Bibeau was able to enter the Centre Block and fire his hunting rifle just steps away from the prime minister, who was meeting with his caucus nearby.

“They had enough warning that there should have been some security protocols put in place,” said Garry Clement, a former RCMP superintendent who is now a security consultant.

“One of the things I thought they would have done is upgrade the security on Parliament Hill.”

The alert was sent to security officers for all federal departments and agencies across Canada. Even so, counter-terrorism experts like Steve Day, a former commander of Canada’s special forces, see little evidence of tightened security.

Pointing to the surveillance video from Zehaf-Bibeau’s arrival on Parliament Hill, Day said last week, “If there would have been a police officer at those bollards when the shooter first departs his car, we’ve got a different scenario.”

As it was, Day said, RCMP officers on the scene seemed to be in the dark, even after Zehaf-Bibeau hijacked a car at gunpoint and headed for the Centre Block.

“When you look at the RCMP cruiser outside Parliament Hill,” Day said, “it doesn’t move until the other cruiser passes it. It tells me he’s not aware of an approaching threat.”

(Read the full article at CBC News)

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Drugs, Health/Environment

6 Washington Post articles that prove marijuana legalization makes us safer

Prohibitionists spout all sorts of nonsense claims of impending doom if cannabis is legalized, but those people are clearly very wrong.

  • After California decriminalized marijuana, teen arrest, overdose and dropout rates fell;
  • teen drug and alcohol use continues to fall, even as more states decriminalize marijuana and make it available for medical purposes;
  • states with medical marijuana laws haven’t seen any uptick in teen marijuana use;
  • states with medical marijuana have actually seen decreases in prescription drug overdoses;
  • Alaska, where personal marijuana use has been de facto legalized for nearly 40 years, is completely average on a variety of economic and demographic indicators;
  • traffic fatalities have fallen in Colorado since legalization there.


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    Geopolitics/War

    US, Canada & Ukraine vote against anti-Nazism resolution at UN

    RT: November 22, 2014

    UN General Assembly’s Third Committee passed a Russia-proposed resolution condemning attempts to glorify Nazism ideology and denial of German Nazi war crimes. The US, Canada and Ukraine were the only countries to vote against it.

    The resolution was passed on Friday by the committee, which is tasked with tackling social and humanitarian issues and human rights abuses, by 115 votes against three, with 55 nations abstaining, Tass news agency reported.

    The document voiced concern over the rise of racism-driven crimes around the world and the influence that parties with extremist agendas are gaining.

    It called for a universal adoption of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Many nations including the US, the UK, China and India, signed the convention but did not recognize a mechanism resolving individual complaints it establishes, which makes the convention unenforceable in their jurisdictions.

    The resolution also decried attempts to whitewash Nazi collaborators by depicting them as fighters of nationalist resistance movements and honoring them as such.

    It condemned any form of denial of Nazi war crimes, including the Jewish Holocaust.

    (read the full article at RT)

    Corporate Welfare, Original, Tyranny

    Harper commits Canada to contribute corporate welfare

    AlternativeFreePress.com

    On Sunday November 16, 2014 Stephen Harper said Canada is preparing to make a contribution to a United Nations climate change fund following a $3 billion donation from the USA.

    The climate change fund is a scam, sold as channeling money “to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change”. That may sound nice, but, as we reported previously, there are several reasons why this is a problem…

    1. Foreign Aid is Corporate Welfare.

    In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins describes how he would convince the government leaders of underdeveloped countries to accept huge loans they could never pay off. He explains how those countries were then pressured politically so much that they were effectively neutralized and their economies crippled. Perkins describes the role of an Economic Hit Man as “a highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”

    Let’s look at an example of how nice sounding green initiatives are often just corporate welfare…

    The BC’s Pacific Carbon Trust takes about $14 million dollars from taxpayers per year and transfers it to large corporations.

    Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation explains that “taxpayer money flowed exclusively into the pockets of corporations, including some of the largest companies in the province. Lafarge, a $20 billion company, was paid by the Trust for 22,998 carbon credits. Encana, an $8.8 billion company, sold 84,276 credits. Canfor, a $2.5 billion company, sold 41,573 credits. Other sellers included TimberWest and Interfor.”

    2. Binding Agreements & Loss Of Sovereignty.

    While this climate agreement may not yet legally bind countries into the corporate welfare scheme, that is the endgame.

    The New York Times reports that officials fear this type of agreement which will not will not bind countries to spend billions of dollars. They desperately want a binding agreement. Richard Muyungi, a climate negotiator for Tanzania is quoted “Without an international agreement that binds us, it’s impossible for us to address the threats of climate change… We are not as capable as the U.S. of facing this problem, and historically we don’t have as much responsibility. What we need is just one thing: Let the U.S. ratify the agreement. If they ratify the agreement, it will trigger action across the world.”

    These international agreements seek to destroy nations sovereignty, they attempt to override laws of local, regional and national governments… and this has been planned for a long time.

    The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 by David Rockefeller, it’s members include business leaders, Heads of State, UN bureaucrats, diplomats, politicians and government officials from all over the world.

    In 1990 The Club of Rome published The First Global Revolution, where they outlined how they would create or exaggerate environmental threats with the intention of manipulating the public into giving up their sovereignty to one world government:

    “The common enemy of humanity is man.
    In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up
    with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming,
    water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these
    dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”

    3. Debt.

    This climate agreement is being presented under the guise of rich countries helping countries in need, but really it is countries already in debt, getting into more debt, in order to get other countries into debt.

    The “rich” countries are not really rich when you consider their debt, every dollar of aid given is borrowed with interest owing and compounding. Increasing debt and devaluing the dollar.

    The “developing” countries can certainly use help, but the strings attached to this type of help will leave them with more debt than they can handle. This will leave them vulnerable to exploitation and allow corporations to pillage resources.

    Banksters (central banks) create fiat currency and loan it to the government, it is then given to banksters (world bank / IMF) who loan it to developing countries. Debt on top of debt, interest plus more interest.

    Sources:
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-says-canada-will-contribute-to-poor-countries-climate-change-fund/article21604820/

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/us/politics/obama-pursuing-climate-accord-in-lieu-of-treaty.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jordan-bateman/carbon-bc_b_1723907.html
    http://www.green-agenda.com/globalrevolution.html

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

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