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Canada should end military operations in Afghanistan
April 05, 2009 |
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in over a million deaths, over five million displaced and many more millions wounded, yet Canada has about 2,800 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
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Our Prime Minister acknowledges that the war on Afghanistan cannot be won and that the insurgency [ misnomer ] cannot be defeated, yet Canada continues to risk the lives and health of our sons and daughters for a corrupt government in an unwelcomed military occupation of a foreign land where we do not belong. |
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| Let your Member of Parliament know that you would like Canada to end military operations in Afghanistan. |
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War Resisters Day of Action - Saturday, September 13th
September 01, 2008 |
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On June 3rd, Members of Parliament overwhelmingly voted on an NDP motion to let US Iraq War Resisters stay in Canada and to stop deportation proceedings against them.
However, the Harper government refused to respect the will of Parliament and the majority of Canadians, and proceeded to deport US Iraq War Resisters seeking refuge here in Canada.
On July 15th, Robin Long, the first war resister to be deported from Canada since the Vietnam War, was forcibly returned to US military custody and on the 22nd of August, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Long deemed the war in Iraq to be both immoral and illegal.
By September 23rd, Jeremy Hinzman, a conscientious objector to the Iraq War, is also expected to be deported from Canada along with his wife and children.
Please contact your Member of Parliament and let them know that you would like the Government of Canada to respect the will of Parliament and to cease deporting war resisters seeking refuge here in Canada. Let them know also, that the Canada you envision, is one that welcomes resisters and other persons seeking refuge from war.
Be sure to contact, also, Diane Finley, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Then, please visit http://www.resisters.ca for further information and details regarding the upcoming September 13th Iraq War Resisters Day of Action.
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| How do we support our troops |
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| July 12, 2008 |
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We support our service-personnel, by asking the right questions, and by making the right decisions, before, and after, engaging them, in any field of activity. |
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Better Aid Bill signed into law
June 01, 2008 |
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Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Make Poverty History campaign to ensure that Canada's aid spending towards poverty reduction, human rights and humanitarian assistance is more focused and effective.
After three long years of campaigning, the Better Aid Bill was signed into law on May 29th at the Supreme Court of Canada. Thank you for making a difference.
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Slow down ... take it easy ... enjoy
May 02, 2008
Did you know saving 5 minutes to rush somewhere in Ontario could cost you $ 975.00 and 6 demerit points? |
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Actual
Speed |
Travel
Distance |
Travel
Minutes |
Over
Limit |
Provincial
Fine |
Demerit
Points |
50 km/h |
8 km |
9.63 |
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60 km/h |
8 km |
8.00 |
10 km/h |
$ 60.00 |
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70 km/h |
8 km |
6.89 |
20 km/h |
$ 180.00 |
3 |
80 km/h |
8 km |
6.01 |
30 km/h |
$ 420.00 |
4 |
90 km/h |
8 km |
5.33 |
40 km/h |
$ 560.00 |
4 |
100 km/h |
8 km |
4.81 |
50 km/h |
$ 975.00 |
6 |
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| Peace awareness |
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| February 09, 2008 |
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Peace, Peace Tower, Remember our Peace Tower, Pipes and Drums for Peace, Canadian Peace Museum, Peace Canada, Peace Agency, Canada's National Peace Agency, peace.gc.ca, paix.gc.ca, peace-paix.gc.ca, Department of Peace, Canadian Department of Peace, Peacekeeping, Refuge, Refuge in the Storm, Refuge from the Storm, Ark, Ark Consciousness, Touch the Sky, To Touch the Sky, Life Honoring Way, Life Honouring Way |
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| The next Remembrance |
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| November 24, 2007 |
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Driving to the Cenotaph, vehicles backed-up all the way onto the highway; a mild and sunny day; the largest Remembrance in Canadian history.
Signs of things to come? Perhaps, perhaps not, but taking both climate change, and our propensity for war, into consideration, such a day may not be long coming.
Please write your Member of Parliament and let them know that you want to see solutions to climate change and that you want Canada to put an end to our military role in Afghanistan.
Our national symbols are the maple leaf (nature) and the Peace Tower (our commitment to peace).
Lets stand in remembrance of those too.
Write your Member of Parliament today. |
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| Simply being |
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| September 02, 2007 |
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Imperialists rely upon capitalism, blame and war-as-diversion to minimize the self-honesty required to be courageous.
Voices of reason are drowned-out by the noise of it all, and the hard-won benefits enjoyed by everyone, are often denied those who laboured to bring them about.
Many don't want to hear the truth, and few will support those who stand in the place of truth, but those of us who call attention to injustice, will remain steadfast in our being-of-who-we-are, for it is in our nature to do so.
Nothing more; nothing less. |
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Private Members Bill to terminate Suicide Seeds needs your support
June 04, 2007 |
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Great News! On May 31st, a Private Members Bill to ban Terminator Seeds was introduced in the House of Commons by NDP Member of Parliament and Agriculture Critic, Alex Atamanenko, to prevent the release, sale, importation and use of seeds rendered infertile due to our gross misuse of technology.
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This is very good news, but in order for the bill to be enacted, your support is crucial.
We need to protect the virility of seeds to maintain life's abundant and robust diversity and we need to ensure that seeds can be harvested for future plantings.
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"Suicide seeds are designed solely to protect the patents and profits of multinational corporations."
Pat Martin
Winnipeg Centre, NDP
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Don't permit multi-national corporations who strive to control the world's food supply, to take those rights away. Let the Government of Canada know that you support a ban on Terminator Seed Technology and that you want Bill C-448 adopted.
Click here to send a letter to Stephen Harper, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton, Stéphane Dion, Alex Atamanenko and your Member of Parliament.
The letters have already been prepared, can be modified to your liking, and will only take a minute or two of your time to process. Please write today.
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Suicide Seeds: Beyond Fiction
Terminator gene: judgment day
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We need to ban Terminator technology
April 16, 2007 |
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Farmers should not to be denied the right to save and harvest seeds for future plantings and seeds should not include technology which results in the seeds becoming sterile, the latest in a long line of abhorrent built-in obsolescence initiatives taken to their ultimate extreme ... built-in sterility. |
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Is it any wonder that the resultant genetically modified mutations are being referred to as suicide seeds? What life has abundantly provided, man in his greed, is now in the process of taking away. This grievous and repugnant life-threatening practice must be stopped.
It took billions of years to bring forth the natural world to its present state, but it took man less than a century to alter the face of all the earth. Taking into consideration our deplorable track record, how can the greed, ignorance and arrogance of man be trusted upon, to alter the natural balance of life that billions of beings are dependent upon.
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"The right of farmers to save seeds is crucial to the survival of 1.4 billion people around the world and crucial to the biodiversity of the planet. Terminator seed technology, which renders seeds sterile after one harvest, threatens this right."
rightoncanada.ca
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It has already been realized that Transgenic seeds can cross over and irreversibly spread into neighbouring plantations. Search. Consider the dire consequences of this if the genetic trait of built-in sterility from Terminator seeds were to cross over into other forms of life. I am unaware of any studies that prove conclusively that this cannot occur.
To let the Government of Canada know that you support a national and international ban on Terminator seeds, click here to send a letter to Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl, Prime Minster Harper, the Opposition Agriculture Critics and your MP.
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| I support the right of Afghans to accept responsibility for their own affairs |
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| February 14, 2007 |
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5 minutes to midnight
Scientists move Doomsday Clock forward |
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| January 17, 2007 |
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"It is 5 minutes to midnight. The threat of a second nuclear age and the expected consequences of climate change push the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight." |
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thebulletin.org |
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| Release of international statement condemning an attack on Iran urgently required of Canada |
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| January 13, 2007 |
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Afghanistan - Our focus should be on aid not war
December 12, 2006 |
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Taliban forces are gaining strength and Karzai, the United States, Britain and Canada are their primary enemies. Distrust of Karzai's government is increasing and we are the occupiers. |
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Rebuilding isn't working. More emphasis should be placed on aid. We need to urgently drop-off lots of supplies such as medical, food, water, blankets, tents, cooking-ware and camping gear to help alleviate the terrible humanitarian crisis of poverty and starvation that currently exists in Afghanistan. |
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"One in four Afghan children do not live to the age of five and 70% of the Afghan population is malnourished."
ndp.ca
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And if Canada is to award contracts for rebuilding, let those contracts be awarded to the people of Afghanistan, not foreigners. Our focus should be on provisions, not profit.
Seems to me that we'd all be alot better off if we brought our troops home and started sending out regular flights to drop-off provisions instead. We'd no longer be the occupiers, we'd be Canadian again. |
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Aid assistance poorly managed; half of all aid stolen |
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| Our AIDS Pandemic |
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| November 22, 2006 |
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About 40 million people around the world have AIDS ... that's much more than the entire population of Canada.
You can help combat this terrible pandemic by clicking here to write the Minister of Health and your Member of Parliament.
The letters have already been prepared and can be edited to your liking.
All you have to do is follow the prompts.
Click here today! |
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| Less than 1 in 4 Canadians strongly support sending troops to Afghanistan: poll |
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| November 05, 2006 |
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A poll commissioned by the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute was released last week by the Innovative Research Group indicating that Only 23% strongly support sending troops to Afghanistan, yet media reports were misleading the public with headlines screaming-out that the majority of Canadians support the Afghan mission.
This type of offensive and irresponsible reporting will not be condoned! We're at war and parents in both Canada and Afghanistan are being devastated by the deaths of their children, cousins, friends, husbands and wives who have lost their lives in Canada's war with Afghanistan.
In polls, the target-population and the questions are keys to achieving desired results. In this particular poll, a question used to interpret support for sending troops to Afghanistan, was: Do you support or oppose Canada sending troops to Afghanistan?
The question, however, is loaded to interpret support for sending troops to Afghanistan because it plays on Canadian misconceptions that our troops are in Afghanistan for nation-building, when in fact, the vast majority of our expenditure and focus in Afghanistan is actually used for war.
Since polling firms are interested in continuing to provide their services to organizations that commission polls, data is manipulated in ways to advance the goals of the organization commissioning the poll and presented in ways that will attract media attention. The media may then resort to sensational reporting to further their own political and monetary interests.
Since this particular poll was commissioned by the the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, a lobbying organization that includes the sixth largest defence contractor in the world, see Wiki, I was not surprised to read news reports headlining majority support for sending troops to Afghanistan even though only 23% of respondents indicated 'strong' support to the loaded question. |
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The Peace Tower
Our commitment to peace
October 22, 2006
The Peace Tower was built shortly after the First World War to honour over 60,000 of our fallen who served during that war, and was named in commemoration of Canada’s commitment to peace. |
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Yet, 149 of 294 of our elected representatives, voted to extend military operations in Afghanistan even though there was very little debate on this extremely important matter, and even though a strong majority of Canadians did not support the decision to extend military operations in Afghanistan. |
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| Dire warning |
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| September 13, 2006 |
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The war on Afghanistan cannot be won, but if we stay, it will be lost. |
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| Only 3 of 10 Canadians support combat operations in Afghanistan |
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| September 12, 2006 |
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Yesterday, I received a news alert from Ipsos Reid regarding a recent poll of theirs conducted on behalf of CanWest/Global News, indicating that half (51%) of Canadians support combat operations in Afghanistan, and immediately dismissed the report as biased and misleading.
What really got my attention, was the way Ipsos chose to manipulate the data to promote the report. Only 25% of respondents indicated 'strong' support for military operations in Afghanistan with another 27% indicating only 'somewhat' support, yet Ipsos chose to publish a report indicating 51% support for military operations in Afghanistan. |
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End Canada's occupation of Afghanistan
From peacekeeping to war; our welcome overstayed |
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September 09, 2006
! Priority: Urgent
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Please show your support for our troops by helping to bring them home. Click here to send a letter to Stephen Harper, your MP and the Opposition Parties, urging our government to end Canada's involvement in the Afghanistan war. |
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Is Afghanistan becoming Canada's Iraq? |
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| What a wonderful world |
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June 23, 2006
On the way home today, there were rainbow colours in a blue rainless sky and nature painted a gathering of eagles in the Outaouais clouds. I began to sing What A Wonderful World ... Asticou and solstice in mind.
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| Canada, we don't belong in Afghanistan |
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June 07, 2006
Where are the Afghan voices pleading for Canada's military presence? Where are the Muslim voices in support of Canada's intervention? Where are the Afghans and Muslims signing-up for active duty in support of Canadian operations in Afghanistan? |
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Where are the elder voices of Canada's Afghans and Muslims during this momentous time? Where are their statements to Canada and where are their round-tables to educate Canadians?
The Canadian Dream
There cannot be a Canadian Dream if part of the Canadian Mosaic remains silent to Canada's influence in their own Ancestral Lands. |
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"As for Canada and the other countries - we have no historical enmity with them. But if they want to come here as fighting forces, we will view them just as we view the Americans, and will conduct resistance against them. But if they return to where they came from, and withdraw their forces from here, we will not view them like the Americans, but as countries which we have nothing to do with."
Mullah Dadallah
Taliban Military Commander
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Recently, our Members of Parliament voted to extend operations in Afghanistan by two more years in a narrow four-vote lead (149-145) which wasn't a lead at all because cabinet members are expected to support the governments position. The vote was also a political ploy as Harper stated his intent to extend operations by another year regardless of the outcome. |
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Remembrance
November 12, 2005
Yesterday, we remembered. We remembered those who have served and those who serve still. Today and tomorrow, we will remember.
Today and tomorrow, let us remember also, our poor and our homeless, here in Canada, and ... abroad.
Click here to begin a process that will help to make a difference today. |
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Global responsibility
Towards a new vision of peacekeeping
September 22, 2005 |
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The Department of National Defence has confirmed that Canadian soldiers have engaged Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that opposition fighters have been both captured and killed. |
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Though Canada has indicated a commitment to the war on terrorism and has been involved in that effort for some time now, this recent course of action (like many that have preceded it) does not address the root causes of our problems and is another disheartening milestone in the polarization of global powers and events. |
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True power exists not in the taking-away of life, but rather in the preservation of life. |
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The winter wind howls though it is spring
March 21, 2005
Spring is in the air, yet the biting pre-dawn winter winds of man's ceaseless destructive tendencies, continue to howl in steadfast opposition to humanity's emergence into the springtime of our potential.
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The truism 'It is always darkest before dawn.' is somewhat comforting in it's suggestive glimmer of hope for our collective long-awaited springtime, yet it also portends of worlds in violent collision during the darkest hour of pre-dawn's unrelinquishing eclipse. |
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May we face the wind together in good ways and may we know the peace that is to be realized, even ... in the midst of great turmoil. |
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May the wind be ever at our back and may the sun forever light our path. |
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Life honouring way
March 12, 2005
The illustration to the left depicts a linear line, two sheltered figures, a corn plant, and an all-encompassing circle. |
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The linear line represents the limitations of worldly practices and interpretations. The two figures represent faithkeepers sheltered by the faith of their respective beliefs. The corn plant represents life and the need to enshrine natural resources as unowned assets of humanity in a new charter of rights. The all-encompassing circle represents truth that is not defiled by the limitations of worldly practices and interpretations. |
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Life Honouring Way means to be committed to life-ways rather than to methods that are anti-life and destructive. |
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The two figures represent faithkeepers who recognize that there is a greater truth or great mystery that is life-affirming; that there are no beliefs that justify destruction in the face of the natural way represented by the all-encompassing circle to which they both belong; that the rights of others to their beliefs are to be respected, and ... that beliefs are not to be imposed upon others. |
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Life Honouring Way means to be committed to life-ways rather than to methods that are anti-life and destructive. This includes our relationship to all living beings. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the seeds that bring forth life are not to be owned. |
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"Just-Cause takes precedence over supporting traditional allies merely on the basis of historical ties. "
Raymond St-Martin
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"The Canada I envision, is not a ruling force, but an evolving relationship of all of the peoples of northern Turtle Island, moving towards greater responsibility in their relationships with one another and all the world."
Raymond St-Martin
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"There was no question, every time we talked about the Afghan mission, it gave us cover for not going to Iraq."
Bill Graham,
Former Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada
"I was at the table (Liberal Cabinet meeting, Feb 4, 2003) when the decision was made, and there were two theatres playing out. One was in Iraq and the other was in Afghanistan and we deliberately made a decision to go to Afghanistan because we knew very shortly down the road we would be asked to participate in a US-led invasion of Iraq which we did not want to do and this was a neat political way of squaring the problem ... of Canada-US relations."
Sheila Copps,
Former Member of Parliament
"Afghanistan’s complexity and lethal tribal politics have been marketed to the public by government and media as a selfless crusade to defeat the `terrorist’ Taliban, implant democracy, and liberate Afghan women. Afghanistan is part of the `world-wide struggle against terrorism,’ we are told. None of this is true.""After a sea of lies and a tsunami of propaganda, the ugly truth behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally emerged into full view.""Four major western oil companies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are about to sign U.S.-brokered no-bid contracts with Baghdad to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields."
"Domination of oil is a pillar of America’s world power. Afghanistan and Iraq are all about control of oil."
Eric S. Margolis,
American Journalist
"Canadian Forces would support the Afghan National Army in providing security for a proposed natural gas pipeline through war-torn Kandahar if the Afghanistan government asks for help."
Globe and Mail
"The U.S. military and its allies have become an energy protection force."
Kevin Phillips,
American Analyst
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Old men create wars; young men, and women, fight and die in them.
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"When the Soviets occupied Afghanistan, they deployed 160,000 troops and about 200,000 Afghan Communist troops – yet failed to crush the mostly Pashtun resistance.""Now, the US and NATO are trying the same mission with only 66,000 troops, backed by ragtag local mercenaries grandly styled the Afghan National Army. ""Of these 66,000 western soldiers, at least half or more are non-combat support troops."
"... this war against 40 million Pashtun tribesmen was a terrible and stupid mistake that will only get worse."
Eric Margolis, Journalist
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"Afghanistan will fall back into chaos and civil war whether Canada leaves in 18 months, four years or a decade from now."
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Global military spending based on 2006 figures of $1,204,000,000,000 (one thousand, two hundred and four billion dollars) which amounts to over two million dollars (2,290,715) per minute or almost forty thousand dollars (38,178) per second:
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Only 7% of Canadians strongly support Canada's role in Afghanistan; in Québec, only 3% strongly support deploying troops to Afghanistan: Strategic Counsel Poll released July 18th, 2007.
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Only 23% of Canadians strongly support military operations in Afghanistan: Ipsos Poll released July 16th, 2007.
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"I support our troops, but not the conflict; our war in Afghanistan is dividing our nation and making Canada a target.
Support our troops; shield them from the politics of ambition and conquest; write your Member of Parliament today."
Raymond St-Martin
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"Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend."
Rabindranath Tagore
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"It is through heart, that one may perceive pristinely; that which is essential, is invisible to the eye."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Paraphrased
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Permission is granted to reproduce in full or in part, any or all of the articles contained within this site, provided that the content is reproduced in a manner that is faithful to the original intent.
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