joe posts

A Chinese farmer managed to get himself 5 years in jail for passing around a petition arguing that human rights were more important that sporting events (pshaw – won’t someone PLEASE think of the corporate sponsors???):

A Chinese dissident who dared to claim that human rights were more important than the Olympic games was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday after being found guilty of subversion.

Yang Chunlin, an unemployed former factory worker from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang province, was accused of accepting money from hostile foreign organisations, writing critical articles, and organising a petition on behalf of farmers who lost their land to developers. The petition, which was circulated last year, declared: “We don’t want the Olympics, we want human rights.” According to Yang’s family, it was signed by 7,000 to 8,000 people. – guardian.co.uk

He’s not the only person being harassed and jailed for speaking out against the Chinese authorities during the run-up to the Olympics.  Think about that when your country wins a gold medal.

UPDATE: The IOC is really taking the battle for basic rights and dignity seriously. Their Olympic broadcaster will ensure dissenting voices aren’t heard – everything will look pure and good to world audiences.

Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), a joint venture between the Games organisers and the IOC’s Olympic Broadcasting Services, is responsible for producing the images from all Olympic-related venues and feeding them to broadcast rights holders.

“The Olympic broadcaster must protect the Olympics and we are being told that at every Games,” a cameraman who has covered several recent Olympics for the host broadcasters told Reuters on condition of anonymity on Monday.

“There is no way a protest will be shown live from Beijing wherever the BOB is in charge,” the man said. – Reuters

I guess sports fans just wouldn’t want to have their countries’ athletes moment of glory interrupted by a bunch of people who JUST want their freedom.

Here’s an update to an older post, “Debating Afghan War Kills Canadian Soldiers.”

The Globe and Mail followed up on some reporting they did back in February on the Department of National Defense’s funding of a ‘think tank’ that puts out pro-war propaganda at the taxpayer’s expense. Here’s an excerpt:

The Department of National Defence sets quotas for how many times a year a military think tank it subsidizes must appear in the news media, a contract made public at the request of the NDP shows.

Critics say the five-year, $500,000 deal with the Conference of Defence Associations crosses the line from promoting debate to paying for supportive commentary – especially troubling when the Harper government is trying to sustain public backing for the Afghan mission.

They say it also raises questions about the millions spent by National Defence each year on grants to other think tanks and universities and called on the department to disclose the terms of those deals as well.

A contract the Conservatives tabled in Parliament this week says the department considers the CDA’s key goals to include the need “to consider the problems of National Defence” and “to support government efforts in placing these problems before the public.”

The March, 2007, contract says the grant is part of a program to ensure an “independent voice for discussion and debate on security and defence issues outside of the academic sphere.” It sets out 13 “expected results” for the CDA, including the requirements to:

“Attain a minimum of 29 media references to the CDA by national or regional journalists and reporters;”

“Attain the publication of a minimum of 15 opinion pieces (including op-eds and letters to the editor in national or regional publications).” – Globe and Mail

But it’s no big deal.

It’s just our government paying a select group of individuals to help convince Canadian citizens that the government’s war is hunky-dory by planting stories in the “free” press without revealing to readers that their tax dollars partly funded the lobbying group that is repeatedly quoted in the stories they read.

I love how ‘in sync’ the government and the CDA are when they’re quoted in the same story. I guess it just looks better to have the government agreeing with an outside, “impartial” source. Like this:

Mr . Pellerin [the Executive-director of the Conference of Defence Associations] said Canada should continue to lobby reluctant allies to do more in the south, between now and the Romanian summit. But the pressure should be discreetly applied behind the scenes because that is how the Dutch were able to pry a couple of hundred Afghan National Army trainers out of the French and Germans for the south, he added.

The chief spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay signalled that will be the approach in the coming months. – National Post

Or this:

Defence Minister Peter MacKay accused the Liberal opposition of “histrionics and hyperbole” when they demanded to know if the government investigated the allegations against the governor.

…

Retired Colonel Alain Pellerin, the executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, an advocacy group for the military, told CTV Newsnet that there have been several accusations against Governor Khalid, but there was not “much foundation” to the allegations. – CTV.ca

Here’s the CDA proving how non-partisan they are:

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay quickly brushed off Layton’s proposal.

“Canada will not go back on its word to its allies and people of Afghanistan to fight terrorism and help to develop and stabilize the region,” he said.

MacKay pointed out that the Commons voted last spring to extend the Afghan mission to 2009.

“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Layton cannot accept the will of Parliament.”

The NDP voted against that motion, but it passed with support from a splintered Liberal party.

Paul Manson, a retired general and president of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, said Layton’s suggestion would be a “catastrophe.”

Manson said he sensed “partisan politics at work here.” (REALLY?!?!?!?!?!? – Joe)

“A precipitous, unilateral pullout by Canada, in the short term, would reflect very badly on Canada, but more importantly it would have a very serious effect on the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

Both NATO allies and the Afghan people and government would feel betrayed, Manson said. – CTV.ca

There’s really not much of a difference between the words of our elected officials and the words of our unelected officials. Scary? Naw, it’s how things work in Ottawa. This sort of thing happens all the time, right? All kinds of groups get funding from the government to promote their views!

“To cite a contentious area, the 2007-08 federal guidelines for women’s groups make domestic advocacy and lobbying ineligible for any funding support.” – Macleans.ca

Well, unless you’re fighting for human rights and not for the right to fight humans.

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Update: The boycott worked! The franchise owner rehired her and even offered to make up her lost pay. I guess someone has some common sense, or at least took a college course in PR.

Heh, forget unions, forget the ministry of labour; next time you get screwed over at work, just get a story in the national newspapers.

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I’d say this is pretty low! Funny that it made it to the front page of the Globe and Mail website:

“I have been fired for giving a baby a Timbit,” Ms. Lilliman said Wednesday.

“It was just out of my heart — she was pointing and going ‘ah, ah. . .’ I should have gone to my purse and got the change, but it was busy.”

Ms. Lilliman, who has worked at the store for three years, said she thought little of the incident since Timbits are often doled out to dogs and children.

She said the baby was about 11 months old, and she gave her the treat to quiet her, since her mother – a Tims’ regular – had been “having a bad day.”

“I could see [the dismissal] if it was a sandwich or something,” she said. “But it was a Timbit.” – Globe and Mail

Getting fired over a $5 sandwich, sure! That’s just good restaurant management – keeps the wage slaves scared. But a $0.16 piece of fried dough? I actually thought, when I read the headline, that someone had been fired for giving unhealthy food to a baby. Like maybe the mother complained or something. I thought THAT would be excessive, so I had one of those ‘2g1c’ reactions when I actually read the Globe and Mail story. Whaaaa? Naaaaahhh!

But let me tell you – this injustice will not stand.

I’m calling for a boycott. A boycott of Tim Hortons!

I’m off to picket them right now, I just need a sign and a blanket and a folding chair and some donuts and a large double double from Tim… dammit.

I guess it took the Olympics to make our leaders realize there’s not much being independently produced by Canadians these days. Some MPs are upset that Canadian athletes aren’t wearing Canadian-made uniforms for the Summer Olympics. That doesn’t surprise me at all, but it sounds like it surprised a lot of people who are supposed to be in charge of trade policies and such…

Like the 2008 Olympic Games, most of the Canadian Olympic team’s uniforms are made in China — and that has some MPs crying foul.

“This is a no-brainer,” New Democrat MP Paul Dewar said Friday.

“This is our Olympic team. We should be ensuring that all of our Olympic athletes are proudly wearing Canadian-made textiles and all of their uniforms should be made in Canada.”

Liberal MP Denis Coderre said Canada is missing a golden opportunity to promote its textile industry on the world stage. He said it’s particularly unfortunate that the “unacceptable” snub to Canada’s homegrown clothing-makers should occur at a time when the industry is struggling.

Bloc Quebecois MP Pierre Paquette said the snub reflects the “laissez-faire” attitude of the Conservative government, which he asserted is not interested in boosting the prospects of the primarily Quebec-based textile industry.

…

Where possible, Rudge said, the COC tries to use Canadian suppliers. But he said it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find Canadian manufacturers who can supply the volume of clothing required to dress the athletes and provide the replicas sold to the public.

“Times have changed considerably,” Rudge said.

“The reality is that there’s no longer manufacturing capacity in Canada that can meet the volume needs that are necessary to manufacture particularly the replica clothing that is sold to the public.”

Canada’s manufacturing industry has been decimated by cheap foreign imports — especially from China — and the rising Canadian dollar. – CBC