Madame Chair,
I would like to offer a POINT OF INFORMATION
Regarding Page 14 of the Minutes. Item #12 Question Period
From Page 14 of the Minutes, First Paragraph under Question Period:
“Lockheed Martin is . . . interested in areas of common interest, including the area of renewable energy and information technologies.”
Acting Dean of Engineering, Ernie Barber is the quoted source.
This is very misleading information for anyone who doesn’t know Lockheed Martin Corporation.
I refer Members of Senate to the “Collaboration Topics” provided by Lockheed Martin Corporation to the U of S, also on my blog. I will not read them all. The very first one is
- Advanced Active & Passive Sensing: . .
. to turn the sensed environment into information about the target (e.g., target recognition, speed, intent, etc. via Ladar, Radar, EO, and acoustic methods).
Then there is
- Autonomous and Robotic Systems . . air or space capabilities.
Translated, this is drones used for dropping bombs on other countries, by remote control from, for example, the Creech Airforce Base in Nevada. The drones have a history of killing civilians. And are used for surveillance of civilian populations. They are now deployed along the Canada-U.S. border.
- Another Collaboration Topic includes methods to facilitate timely response . . (e.g., explosive vapor, biological agents)
Is there anything about renewable energy, the area of interest supplied by Acting Dean of Engineering Ernie Barber and quoted in the Minutes? Yes – – in the Collaboration Topics, Energy and Climate Change follows Distributed ISR & Attack:
I searched the Lockheed Martin website for renewables and found this:
Lockheed Martin Jumps on the Clean Energy Bandwagon, September 2011
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/military-contractors-jumping-clean-energy-bandwagon/
Chris Myers, Vice President of International Business Development and Energy Markets says:
Lockheed’s positioning as a military contractor allows it to tap into the Department of Defense, which is the largest single purchaser of fuel in the world. The DoD can help drive the market there, said Myers.
Members of the Senate will be familiar with the term “green washing”.
There is an entire book about Lockheed Martin titled “Prophets of War” by William Hartung, published last year.
I submit that the highly selective statement quoted in the Minutes is misleading information and needs to be corrected. The Collaboration Topics supplied by Lockheed Martin itself, and the book “Prophets of War” do not support this description.
As most people know, Lockheed Martin is a so-called “defence contractor”. It profits mightily from the waging of war, has close relationships with the U.S. military and was influential in the decision by the Americans to drop bombs on Iraq. They have a long string of court convictions and out-of-court settlements. In Canada they are perhaps best known for the untendered multi-billion dollar contract for F-35 stealth bombers.
The information supplied by Acting Dean of Engineering, Ernie Barber, to University Senate is highly misleading, AND
is inconsistent with the terms of the “Collaboration Topics“ provided by Lockheed Martin Corporation itself, to the U of S.
From Page 14 of the Minutes, First Paragraph under Question Period:
“Lockheed Martin is . . . interested in areas of common interest, including the area of renewable energy and information technologies.”
Ha!