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Cindy Sheehan Reports from Canada
Cindy Sheehan writes about her recent visit to Canada.
Cindy Sheehan: On No Canada!
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
The day that the apparently reformed war-monger, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, envisioned decades ago has finally come. It is time for governments to get out of our way.
I have had a chance since Camp Casey in August to travel the world. I have had the honor of meeting hundreds of fellow souls who are just plain sick and tired of the way BushCo is cavorting around the world and comporting themselves as fledgling 3 rd Reich tyrants (Hitler didn't need warrants either) who are threatening the way of life of every person who inhabits our world. I was only just in Canada and got to meet many of our brothers and sisters north of the border.
From Italy to Canada to Great Britain and everywhere in between, our brothers and sisters who live in these nations are extremely tired of their governments who support BushCo in their war crimes and crimes against humanity. PM Berlusconi of Italy recently paid the price for his support of BushCo's policies by being uninvited back to his position. I knew he was going to be defeated by just traveling around Italy and hearing and feeling the frustration and fear for their democracy that Berlusconi's neo-Fascist rule was destroying.
By many accounts, Stephen Harper was put in place as leader of Canada by the collapse of weak coalitions and scandals that led to this man now leading a minority government there. He is wildly unpopular from coast to coast up north and there is a growing sense of unease about his emulation of a very unpopular person in the USA but even more in Canada: George Bush.
Canadians have to be the healthiest looking and most polite citizenry that I have encountered in my travels. The British people that I have met are very polite but nowhere near the graciousness of Canadians. Canadians are truly civil, and they mean it. Canadians have been proud of their country's role of world peacekeeper and as the beacon of peace and hope and refuge for us Americans who feel that our country's aggressive militarism endangers us and harms our reputations and souls. Now Canadians need to wake up to the fact that their new minority, disliked government is leading them down this same slippery slope to the fascistic militarism of their immediate neighbors to the south.
The first day that I was in Canada, their defense minister, Gordon O'Connor, signed the extension of the NORAD Treaty with the Bush Regime without any debate or votes in Parliament. The citizenry was outraged in their courteous way. Not so coincidentally, Gordy just so happens to be a former defense industry lobbyist who has been using his position to promote the " Canada First" position which ultimately removes Canada, once and for all, from their world peace keeping role. With Canada's support of the Haitian Government's overthrow and support of BushCo's travesty in Afghanistan, Canada was already heading down this path of destruction.
Canadians are distressed that defense spending rose by 5.3 billions of dollars (roughly what the US spends for 2 weeks in Iraq) while the preschool budget is being cut and college tuition is rising. This increase in military spending coincidentally correlates with a push to recruit thousands of more soldiers who are still be told by the Canadian recruiters that their country only does peace keeping missions. This manipulation of facts and the exploitation of fear and false patriotism is being fueled by the Canadian media who seem to be turning, for the most part, into propaganda tools of their government a la our rightwing 4th estate.
However, with Canadian soldiers dying in combat, the citizens of the country are starting to question their Bush clone of a PM and his Bush-style cabinet. Recently, the PM said that if he sends troops into combat, he expects the people of the country to support them; which really only means that he expects the people to support him and his loose interpretation of the facts. Also, Bush One and Two style (with a brief Clinton break), the Canadian media is now banned from showing images of the flag draped coffins: Allegedly to not cause the families any more pain. But, as the mother of a soldier who came home that way, trust me, it causes far more pain to have your child KIA in a pointless war then it does to see the military honor guard treating our children with the care and respect not afforded to them by their own misleaders.
The recent polls in Canada show that the people there are starting to wake up by the truckloads with support for their administration's support of BushCo's war slipping 14 percentage points in two months! Canadians are seeing that the war in Afghanistan is not righteous and that when Canada sends troops there, it frees American troops to be illegally and immorally deployed to Iraq. Canada needs a Cindy Sheehan to go to the PM's residence and demand to know what noble cause her child died for, or is still fighting for.
Even more of a struggle right now to Canadian peace coalitions, besides Canada's seeming slumber, is that the government won't support war resisters who flee the American military because they don't want to go over to Iraq and kill innocent people or die for the war profiteers. So far, two soldiers have been denied asylum. I was told by members of a few of their political parties that the asylum is being denied for two reasons: first of all, because our soldiers are "volunteers" now and, secondly, because if our kids refuse to go to Iraq and go to prison instead: our prisons aren't that bad.
Well, like I have said and written about before, if our kids volunteered, then they should be free to "un-volunteer" if the mission of the organization changes. I have belonged to several volunteer organizations and when I disagree, or when I just feel like it, I leave: and I am not threatened with prison, or execution, which is an option for our children in times of war.
Most of our kids did not volunteer to go to Iraq to guard special contractors or kill innocent people to cushion the retirement of the CEO of Exxon. And, newsflash, our recruiters are still lying to our young people telling them that if they enlist they won't have to go to Iraq and other despicable lies. When the recruit signs on the dotted line, the contract becomes binding only on him/her: those kinds of unilateral contracts are not even legal.
Our young soldiers, if they are refugees fleeing an organization that does not reflect their values, should not have to go to prison, no matter what the conditions are. With Amnesty International saying that violations are rampant in "enemy" combatant detention centers, then why should Canada think that our soldiers are any better off in a place that they should not be in the first place.
Please, dear Canada, wake up before it is too late and you wake up in a country that you don't even know anymore. We here in America fell into an exhausted sleep of denial after Vietnam and we are reaping what was silently and deviously sown by the neocons who have been working for an overthrow of our government for over 30 years. If we didn't learn the lessons of Vietnam, we will never surely forget the lessons we learned at the feet of BushCo that have cost so many so much.
It's okay to copy our baseball and the huge hearts of the American people who never wanted to picture the country that we have become. But don't copy, or let your government be willing partners in crime with our public enemy number one: BushCo.
A Canadian minister was being grilled by their press after a press conference that I conducted with the Canadian War Resister's League and finally in frustration he blurted out: "We're not going to allow an American woman (me) to dictate our policies." And you know what, he's right, but with support rapidly dwindling for both wars (with Iraq never being popular with the people of Canada) and with support for Canada allowing asylum to our young men and women of conscience, it's time for their government to listen to its people. It's also time for our government to listen to us.
George and Steve and Tony and the rest of you war mongers: Get out of our way, we the people, want peace. We will have it.
--Cindy Sheehan
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
The day that the apparently reformed war-monger, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, envisioned decades ago has finally come. It is time for governments to get out of our way.
I have had a chance since Camp Casey in August to travel the world. I have had the honor of meeting hundreds of fellow souls who are just plain sick and tired of the way BushCo is cavorting around the world and comporting themselves as fledgling 3 rd Reich tyrants (Hitler didn't need warrants either) who are threatening the way of life of every person who inhabits our world. I was only just in Canada and got to meet many of our brothers and sisters north of the border.
From Italy to Canada to Great Britain and everywhere in between, our brothers and sisters who live in these nations are extremely tired of their governments who support BushCo in their war crimes and crimes against humanity. PM Berlusconi of Italy recently paid the price for his support of BushCo's policies by being uninvited back to his position. I knew he was going to be defeated by just traveling around Italy and hearing and feeling the frustration and fear for their democracy that Berlusconi's neo-Fascist rule was destroying.
By many accounts, Stephen Harper was put in place as leader of Canada by the collapse of weak coalitions and scandals that led to this man now leading a minority government there. He is wildly unpopular from coast to coast up north and there is a growing sense of unease about his emulation of a very unpopular person in the USA but even more in Canada: George Bush.
Canadians have to be the healthiest looking and most polite citizenry that I have encountered in my travels. The British people that I have met are very polite but nowhere near the graciousness of Canadians. Canadians are truly civil, and they mean it. Canadians have been proud of their country's role of world peacekeeper and as the beacon of peace and hope and refuge for us Americans who feel that our country's aggressive militarism endangers us and harms our reputations and souls. Now Canadians need to wake up to the fact that their new minority, disliked government is leading them down this same slippery slope to the fascistic militarism of their immediate neighbors to the south.
The first day that I was in Canada, their defense minister, Gordon O'Connor, signed the extension of the NORAD Treaty with the Bush Regime without any debate or votes in Parliament. The citizenry was outraged in their courteous way. Not so coincidentally, Gordy just so happens to be a former defense industry lobbyist who has been using his position to promote the " Canada First" position which ultimately removes Canada, once and for all, from their world peace keeping role. With Canada's support of the Haitian Government's overthrow and support of BushCo's travesty in Afghanistan, Canada was already heading down this path of destruction.
Canadians are distressed that defense spending rose by 5.3 billions of dollars (roughly what the US spends for 2 weeks in Iraq) while the preschool budget is being cut and college tuition is rising. This increase in military spending coincidentally correlates with a push to recruit thousands of more soldiers who are still be told by the Canadian recruiters that their country only does peace keeping missions. This manipulation of facts and the exploitation of fear and false patriotism is being fueled by the Canadian media who seem to be turning, for the most part, into propaganda tools of their government a la our rightwing 4th estate.
However, with Canadian soldiers dying in combat, the citizens of the country are starting to question their Bush clone of a PM and his Bush-style cabinet. Recently, the PM said that if he sends troops into combat, he expects the people of the country to support them; which really only means that he expects the people to support him and his loose interpretation of the facts. Also, Bush One and Two style (with a brief Clinton break), the Canadian media is now banned from showing images of the flag draped coffins: Allegedly to not cause the families any more pain. But, as the mother of a soldier who came home that way, trust me, it causes far more pain to have your child KIA in a pointless war then it does to see the military honor guard treating our children with the care and respect not afforded to them by their own misleaders.
The recent polls in Canada show that the people there are starting to wake up by the truckloads with support for their administration's support of BushCo's war slipping 14 percentage points in two months! Canadians are seeing that the war in Afghanistan is not righteous and that when Canada sends troops there, it frees American troops to be illegally and immorally deployed to Iraq. Canada needs a Cindy Sheehan to go to the PM's residence and demand to know what noble cause her child died for, or is still fighting for.
Even more of a struggle right now to Canadian peace coalitions, besides Canada's seeming slumber, is that the government won't support war resisters who flee the American military because they don't want to go over to Iraq and kill innocent people or die for the war profiteers. So far, two soldiers have been denied asylum. I was told by members of a few of their political parties that the asylum is being denied for two reasons: first of all, because our soldiers are "volunteers" now and, secondly, because if our kids refuse to go to Iraq and go to prison instead: our prisons aren't that bad.
Well, like I have said and written about before, if our kids volunteered, then they should be free to "un-volunteer" if the mission of the organization changes. I have belonged to several volunteer organizations and when I disagree, or when I just feel like it, I leave: and I am not threatened with prison, or execution, which is an option for our children in times of war.
Most of our kids did not volunteer to go to Iraq to guard special contractors or kill innocent people to cushion the retirement of the CEO of Exxon. And, newsflash, our recruiters are still lying to our young people telling them that if they enlist they won't have to go to Iraq and other despicable lies. When the recruit signs on the dotted line, the contract becomes binding only on him/her: those kinds of unilateral contracts are not even legal.
Our young soldiers, if they are refugees fleeing an organization that does not reflect their values, should not have to go to prison, no matter what the conditions are. With Amnesty International saying that violations are rampant in "enemy" combatant detention centers, then why should Canada think that our soldiers are any better off in a place that they should not be in the first place.
Please, dear Canada, wake up before it is too late and you wake up in a country that you don't even know anymore. We here in America fell into an exhausted sleep of denial after Vietnam and we are reaping what was silently and deviously sown by the neocons who have been working for an overthrow of our government for over 30 years. If we didn't learn the lessons of Vietnam, we will never surely forget the lessons we learned at the feet of BushCo that have cost so many so much.
It's okay to copy our baseball and the huge hearts of the American people who never wanted to picture the country that we have become. But don't copy, or let your government be willing partners in crime with our public enemy number one: BushCo.
A Canadian minister was being grilled by their press after a press conference that I conducted with the Canadian War Resister's League and finally in frustration he blurted out: "We're not going to allow an American woman (me) to dictate our policies." And you know what, he's right, but with support rapidly dwindling for both wars (with Iraq never being popular with the people of Canada) and with support for Canada allowing asylum to our young men and women of conscience, it's time for their government to listen to its people. It's also time for our government to listen to us.
George and Steve and Tony and the rest of you war mongers: Get out of our way, we the people, want peace. We will have it.
--Cindy Sheehan
For more information:
http://brickburner.blogs.com/my_weblog/200...
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The men who run the world and spend their nation's money (one trillion a year) on weapons are incapable of evolving. They order zillions of men globally to dress alike and move in choreography (marching). They have been doing this for roughly 5,000 years with no sign of changing. Its overwhelmingly male youths the world over who line up to kill eachother and to rape women in "rape camps" that they establish.
The Discovery channel has a series on "Weapons of the Future" The Boyz are inventing yet more neato-keano ways of killing people, such as automatic kill-bots and armored vehicles that drive themselves. The US is planning "full spectrum dominance" in its insane Project for a New American Century.
Men gave us nukes in space, Claymore mines, dropping bombs from planes and the ability to destroy all life on earth.
To bad they werent premtively aborted.
The worlds male leaders dont want peace, they plan for war. Some insane women (Condi Rice, etc) want to be honorary men by apeing the primitive behavoir of the most violent men.
The handful of sane men who are revolted by killing have yet to increase in numbers necessary to tame their insane brothers.
To the worlds soldiers- Dressing alike, killing people and moving around in unison is NOT normal and NOT heroic.
The Discovery channel has a series on "Weapons of the Future" The Boyz are inventing yet more neato-keano ways of killing people, such as automatic kill-bots and armored vehicles that drive themselves. The US is planning "full spectrum dominance" in its insane Project for a New American Century.
Men gave us nukes in space, Claymore mines, dropping bombs from planes and the ability to destroy all life on earth.
To bad they werent premtively aborted.
The worlds male leaders dont want peace, they plan for war. Some insane women (Condi Rice, etc) want to be honorary men by apeing the primitive behavoir of the most violent men.
The handful of sane men who are revolted by killing have yet to increase in numbers necessary to tame their insane brothers.
To the worlds soldiers- Dressing alike, killing people and moving around in unison is NOT normal and NOT heroic.
The information presented here is simply wrong. Harper is more popular now then when he was elected. His popularity has increased in every region of the country. If an electio were held today his party would win a massive majority.
The Norad agreement was passed by a huge majority in Parliament, and remains a popular treaty amongst Canadians.
The Aghanistan military mission is supported by Canadians, as is the direction the new Conservative government is taking vis a vis foriegn affairs.
All of this misinformation suggests that the author is either willfuly misinformed or that she hangs out with a limited left leaning circle tha has filled her head with things she wanted to hear.
The author is well known for her ability to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. It seems even in the peaceable kingdom she can't find the truth.
The Norad agreement was passed by a huge majority in Parliament, and remains a popular treaty amongst Canadians.
The Aghanistan military mission is supported by Canadians, as is the direction the new Conservative government is taking vis a vis foriegn affairs.
All of this misinformation suggests that the author is either willfuly misinformed or that she hangs out with a limited left leaning circle tha has filled her head with things she wanted to hear.
The author is well known for her ability to never let the facts get in the way of a good story. It seems even in the peaceable kingdom she can't find the truth.
so all 5+ of you could flock to this site and incessantly post????
Surely you guys didn't happen on this site at the same time....
Surely you guys didn't happen on this site at the same time....
We all got here because there was a funny article in one of our papers about this page. To be honest it wasn't that far off the mark in that it put you all on a par with Bush.
I'd be curious about the kind of paper...
Cindy's blog is full of errors, perhaps even deliberate lies. For those seeking the truth, check out the following newsworthy Canadian websites and read for yourself the latest polls which clearly demonstrate that our Prime Minister's popularity continues to climb, and, unlike the ranting in Cindy's article, we Canadian know that our troops are involved in fighting the Terrorist.
http://www.nealenews.com
http://www.bourque.org
http://www.canoe.ca
http://www.nationalpost.ca
http://www.nealenews.com
http://www.bourque.org
http://www.canoe.ca
http://www.nationalpost.ca
IAN BROWN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
When it comes time for history to bestow a permanent nickname on Prime Minister Stephen Harper — to label his stretch as Canada's leader, the way “Slick Willie” Clinton or “Uncle Louis” St. Laurent sum up theirs — someone should give serious consideration to “Big Daddy” Harper as a contender for the honour.
Big Daddy Harper: It sounds good, no? Big Daddy connotes a big political boss with a big, strategic mind, which describes Mr. Harper to a T. There's even an American undernote, like a name out of Tennessee Williams, that hints at Mr. Harper's sympathy for the methods and ideas of Republicans from Texas and other parts south.
But Big Daddy Harper is even more appropriate for another reason. To judge from his first four months in office, Mr. Harper is running the most hands-on, centrally controlled federal government in living memory, a government so Harper-centric and so micro-managed by the Prime Minister's Office it feels literally patriarchal. If Big Daddy Harper is a control freak — and no one denies it, even if they won't speak for attribution — he is a control freak on purpose, in order to come across as a firm and fatherly leader, one prime ministerial enough to deserve a majority in the next election.
Consider the evidence:
Last month, to avoid bad press on an issue he has tied firmly to the Conservative brand, Mr. Harper banned the media from filming the return of the bodies of four Canadian soldiers who died last month in Afghanistan.
Instead of decentralizing power as promised, Mr. Harper has funnelled more and more control straight into the Prime Minister's Office. The PMO now pre-approves everything Tory ministers and MPs do in their political lives. They've been ordered to speak less to the media, and banned from gassing about the government's plans.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060513.wxcover13/BNStory/National/home
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
When it comes time for history to bestow a permanent nickname on Prime Minister Stephen Harper — to label his stretch as Canada's leader, the way “Slick Willie” Clinton or “Uncle Louis” St. Laurent sum up theirs — someone should give serious consideration to “Big Daddy” Harper as a contender for the honour.
Big Daddy Harper: It sounds good, no? Big Daddy connotes a big political boss with a big, strategic mind, which describes Mr. Harper to a T. There's even an American undernote, like a name out of Tennessee Williams, that hints at Mr. Harper's sympathy for the methods and ideas of Republicans from Texas and other parts south.
But Big Daddy Harper is even more appropriate for another reason. To judge from his first four months in office, Mr. Harper is running the most hands-on, centrally controlled federal government in living memory, a government so Harper-centric and so micro-managed by the Prime Minister's Office it feels literally patriarchal. If Big Daddy Harper is a control freak — and no one denies it, even if they won't speak for attribution — he is a control freak on purpose, in order to come across as a firm and fatherly leader, one prime ministerial enough to deserve a majority in the next election.
Consider the evidence:
Last month, to avoid bad press on an issue he has tied firmly to the Conservative brand, Mr. Harper banned the media from filming the return of the bodies of four Canadian soldiers who died last month in Afghanistan.
Instead of decentralizing power as promised, Mr. Harper has funnelled more and more control straight into the Prime Minister's Office. The PMO now pre-approves everything Tory ministers and MPs do in their political lives. They've been ordered to speak less to the media, and banned from gassing about the government's plans.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060513.wxcover13/BNStory/National/home
I guess this was posted at 4:23 PM SF time on the same day
http://tinyurl.com/g8wld
Yep, it's a bunch of creeps all right
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/portal.php
http://tinyurl.com/g8wld
Yep, it's a bunch of creeps all right
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/portal.php
They spam/scream/troll/cry....but you can't post on any of their blogs.
Phoneys. What was so funny is that none of them could produce a coherent argument...LOL
Phoneys. What was so funny is that none of them could produce a coherent argument...LOL
MAY 15, 2006
AS A U.S. CITIZEN, I FLED TO CANADA FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM AFTER I WAS THREATENED WITH INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL FOR ATTEMPTING TO MAKE PUBLIC THE FRAUD IN A FEDERAL RURAL HOUSING PROGRAM.
THE DETAILS OF MY STORY CAN BE READ AT:
http://fray.slate.com/?id=3936&m=17470001
and
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/
Frontpage/2006/04/18/01176.html
For comments or questions, contact me at:
escapefromamerica [at] hotmail.com
AS A U.S. CITIZEN, I FLED TO CANADA FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM AFTER I WAS THREATENED WITH INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL FOR ATTEMPTING TO MAKE PUBLIC THE FRAUD IN A FEDERAL RURAL HOUSING PROGRAM.
THE DETAILS OF MY STORY CAN BE READ AT:
http://fray.slate.com/?id=3936&m=17470001
and
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/
Frontpage/2006/04/18/01176.html
For comments or questions, contact me at:
escapefromamerica [at] hotmail.com
Listen now:
As could be appreciated from the comments of Canadian right-wingers before the thread was deleted, Canada is the LAST place in the world to go if you're fleeing from the guys in the white coats. Here's a radio program from Nanaimo BC (on Vancouver Island across the straight from Vancouver BC) in which Canadians talk about how out of control "psychological enforcement" is there. The neighbors of one guest on the show called in the white-coats because she was sunbathing on her front lawn!! From the sound of it, Canada is more Orwellian than the US in this respect.
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