From The Walrus Talks Water (Vancouver 2014); 9 minutes
For everyone who has an interest in Water.
P.S. “Deep Leadership” is the title of a book by Joe McInnis. You can read about it at:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/216282/deep-leadership-by-dr-joe-macinnis/9780307361103/
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men —above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellowmen, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying— “A man can surely do what he wills to do, but he cannot determine what he wills”—impressed itself upon me in youth and has always consoled me when I have witnessed or suffered life’s hardships. This conviction is a perpetual breeder of tolerance, for it does not allow us to take ourselves or others too seriously; it makes rather for a sense of humor.
To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
Without the sense of collaborating with like-minded beings in the pursuit of the ever unattainable in art and scientific research, my life would have been empty. Ever since childhood I have scorned the commonplace limits so often set upon human ambition. Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends, or even to my own family. These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the year
The reputation of the meat industry will sink to that of big tobacco unless it removes cancer-causing chemicals from processed products such as bacon and ham, a coalition of experts and politicians warn today.
Led by Professor Chris Elliott, the food scientist who ran the UK government’s investigation into the horse-meat scandal, and Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist, the coalition claims there is a “consensus of scientific opinion” that the nitrites used to cure meats produce carcinogens called nitrosamines when ingested.
It says there is evidence that consumption of processed meats containing these chemicals results in 6,600 bowel cancer cases every year in the UK – four times the fatalities on British roads – and is campaigning for the issue to be taken as seriously as sugar levels in food.
“Government action to remove nitrites from processed meats should not be far away,” Malhotra said. “Nor can a day of reckoning for those who dispute the incontrovertible facts. The meat industry must act fast, act now – or be condemned to a similar reputational blow to that dealt to tobacco.”
Other coalition members include Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson; former shadow environment secretaries Mary Creagh and Kerry McCarthy; the Tory chair of parliament’s cross-party group on food and health, David Amess; the Liberal Democrat vice-chair of Westminster’s cross-party children’s group, Joan Walmsley; nutritionist Dr Chris Gill; the Cancer Fund for Children, and John Procter MEP, who sits on the European parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee.
In a statement issued today, the coalition warns “that not enough is being done to raise awareness of nitrites in our processed meat and their health risks, in stark contrast to warnings regularly issued regarding sugar and fattening foods”.
In 2015 the World Health Organisation published evidence that linked processed meats to 34,000 cases of colorectal cancer worldwide each year – and identified nitrites and nitrosamines as the likely cause.
Two studies published this year have also raised concerns. Glasgow University researchers collated data from 262,195 British women that suggested reducing processed meat consumption could cut a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. And a John Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US study suggested a direct link between nitrites and the onset of mental health problems. Its 10-year analysis of more than 1,000 people found patients taken to hospital with manic episodes were three times more likely to have recently eaten nitrite-cured meat.
The coalition says the meat industry claims nitrites are essential to combat botulism and infection. But Malhotra said Parma ham producers have not used nitrites for 25 years.
Nitrites give cured products such as bacon and ham their attractive pink colour. Some companies are substituting these with natural alternatives. A year ago, Northern Irish company Finnebrogue launched the “first truly nitrite-free bacon”, with fruit and spice extracts. It is stocked by many major supermarkets. Ocado also sells nitrite-free streaky bacon fromNorthamptonshire-based Houghton Hams and a nitrite-free prosciutto from Unearthed.
NOTE: The first part of the article will be a “review” for many. You may wish to start reading at the heading:
Contagious act of resistance
Opinion
— Counter Currents
THIS has been the seventh year that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spent Christmas in confinement inside Ecuador’s London embassy. For nearly a decade, the US government’s aggressive witch-hunt of truthtellers has trapped him in the UK.
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Assange claimed political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 to mitigate the risk of extradition to the US, relating to his publishing activities. He has been unlawfully held by the UK government without charge, being denied access to medical treatment, fresh air, sunlight and adequate space to exercise. In December 2015, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Assange was being ‘arbitrarily deprived of his freedom and demanded that he be released.’ Yet the UK government’s refusal to comply with the UN finding has allowed this unlawful detention to continue.
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This cruel persecution of Assange represents a deep crisis of western democracy. As injustice against this western journalist prevails, the legitimacy of traditional institutions has weakened. The benevolent democracy that many were taught to believe in has been shown to be an illusion. It has been revealed as a system of control, lacking enforcement mechanisms in law to deal with real offenders of human rights violations, who for example illegally invade countries under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Under this managed democracy, the premise of ‘no person is above laws’ is made into a pretense that elites use to escape democratic accountability. Media has become the ‘Guardian’ of ruling elites that engage in propaganda to distort truth.
Dictatorship of the west
ASSANGE’S plight, his struggle for freedom revealed a dictatorship in the West. There have been changes in Ecuador’s treatment of Assange ever since a new President Lenin Moreno took office in May 2017. Contrary to the former President Rafael Correa, who courageously granted the publisher asylum, Moreno has shown total disregard for this Australian journalist who has become a political refugee and also a citizen of Ecuador since December 2017.
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This Ecuadorian government’s shift in attitude had to do with western governments’ bullying this small nation of South America. It was reported that the US has pressured Ecuador over loans, making it act illegally in violation of international laws as well as its own constitution. At the end of March, one day after a high level US military visit to Ecuador, this new Ecuadorian president unilaterally cut off Assange from the outside world, by denying his access to internet, prohibiting him from having visitors and communicating with the press. Assange has been put into isolation, which Human Rights Watch general counsel described as being similar to solitary confinement.
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In mid October, in the guise of restoring his internet access, Ecuador issued a “Special Protocol” that perpetuates this silencing of Assange. By further restricting his freedom of expression and requiring him to pay for medical bills and phone calls, Moreno government seeks to break Assange. He is forcing him to leave the embassy on his own accord and get arrested by UK authorities, who are refusing to give him assurances to not extradite him to the US.
US imperialism
ASSANGE has met the fury of empire by exposing US government war crimes having the blood of tens of thousands of innocent people dripping from its hands. He has become a political prisoner, being treated as an enemy by the most powerful government in the world. Last month, US prosecutors mistakenly revealed secret criminal charges against Assange under file in the Eastern District of Virginia.
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James Goodale, First Amendment lawyer and former general counsel of the New York Times, commented on the danger of US government’s efforts to charge a journalist possibly under espionage who is not American and did not publish in the US:
‘A charge against Assange for “conspiring” with a source is the most dangerous charge that I can think of with respect to the First Amendment in almost all my years representing media organisations.’
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a US federal law, created after World War I to prosecute spies during wartime. This law is still in effect today and can be used to go after even those outside of US territory, due to a later amendment that removed this wording from the act: ‘within the jurisdiction of the United States, on the high seas, and within the United States.’
Obama’s justice department was eager to prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks for publishing classified documents, but chose not to do so, due to concerns that it would set a precedent which could strip away the First Amendment protection for the press. After WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 publication in March 2017 detailing CIA capabilities to perform electronic surveillance, the US government showed its appetite to abuse this outdated law to criminalise journalism.
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In April 2017, the then Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated that the arrest of Assange is a priority. This threat on press freedom increased in the following months, as he showed his determination to prosecute media outlets publishing classified information. Trump’s Secretary of State and the former CIA director, Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks ‘a non-state hostile intelligence service’, claiming that the organisation tries to subvert American values and it needs to be shut down. As the Trump administration tries to claim that it has a right to prosecute anyone in the world in their assault on free press, top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill showed their bipartisan support. They signed a letter demanding Pompeo urges Ecuador to evict Assange.
Contagious act of resistance
THE secret indictment against Assange opened a sad era for democracy. Barry Pollack, WikiLeaks founder’s Washington DC based attorney noted that this Trump administration’s attempt to prosecute ‘someone for publishing truth is a dangerous path for democracy to take.’ David Kaye, UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression stated that ‘prosecuting Assange would be dangerously problematic from the perspective of press freedom’ and should be resisted.
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Top human rights organisations have been showing strong opposition against the extradition of Assange. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the UK government not to extradite him to the US. More than 30 Parliamentarians of the German parliament and EU parliament wrote to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, asking the UN to intervene so that Assange can travel to a safe third country.
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Now, significant support for Assange has emerged from one of the European nations. On December 20, two German parliamentarians came to London to visit Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. Germany that once suffered the suppression of civil liberty under a terrifyingly totalitarian state, has in recent years become a safe haven for western dissidents who were forced to flee their countries against their governments’ persecution. In the aftermath of Snowden revelations of the ‘United Stasi of America’, support for the safety of whistleblowers and journalists who report on government surveillance has increasingly grown.
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WikiLeaks investigative editor Sarah Harrison, who helped to secure asylum for the NSA whistleblower found her refuge for her exile from the UK in Berlin. Germany’s major centre-left political party, SPD recognised her political courage, demonstrated in her work with WikiLeaks and the organisation’s extraordinary source protection. Harrison was given an award, named after a journalist and the former West German chancellor Willy Brant who escaped the Nazis and was exiled before returning to Germany.
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Last week, two German politicians who traveled to visit Assange, carried out an act of urgent diplomacy to represent this country’s commitment to the value of freedom of speech. At the press conference outside of the embassy after their visit, the pair who has been eager to see Assange for months, but were not allowed to do so until now, stood with Assange’s father and called for an international solution to western government’s persecution of Assange. Sevim Dagdelen, member of the Left Party, emphasised that Assange’s injustice is an exceptional case, noting how ‘there is no other publisher or editor in the western world who has been arbitrarily detained’ and this is a betrayal of western values about human rights. Heike Hansel, vice-chairman of the Left parliamentary group, urged people to resist US government’ extraterritorial prosecution of Assange.
The courage of individuals inside democratic institutions, striving to uphold civil liberties, became contagious. Just before Christmas Eve this year, UN experts reiterated their demand for the UK to honour its international obligations and allow Assange to leave the embassy without fear of arrest and extradition. Chris Williamson, a sitting UK member of parliament has endorsed the UN’s statement that Assange should be compensated and be made free.While elected officials are standing up for the principle of democracy, concerned citizens around the world day and night stand watch over Assange outside of the embassy in London.
Restoring rule of law
AS 2018 comes to an end, the legitimacy of the West and its entire fabric of institutions is now being tested. Democracy birthed in ancient Athens, was people’s aspiration to organise a society through their direct participation in power. In modern times, it got uprooted from the original imagination and quickly degenerated into a form of ‘elective despotism’ that Thomas Jefferson once predicted.
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In the institutional hierarchy of western liberal democracy, what was regarded as the force for progress began to decay, from inside out. A system of representation that is purported to make those who are capable and intelligent to use their skills for public service, has been abused. Now, the rich and powerful began to inflict harm on those whom they are supposed to represent.
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WikiLeaks, the world’s first global Fourth Estate, has come to existence as response to this crisis of democracy. With a pristine record of accuracy in its publications, the whistleblowing site brought a way for citizens around the world to transform this hollow democracy that has devoured ideals that once inspired the hearts of ordinary people.
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From the 2007 release of the Kroll report on official corruption in Kenyathat affected the outcome of the national election, to the exposing of the moral bankruptcy of Iceland’s largest bank in 2009, WikiLeaks publications helped awaken the power of citizenry in many countries. Released documents sparked global uprisings, transforming pervasive defeatism and despair into collective action on the streets. US diplomatic cables leak shared through social media in 2010 unleashed a powerful force that finally toppled the corrupt Tunisian dictator Ben Ali.
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Months after the Arab Spring, informed by WikiLeaks cables, people in Mexico launched a peaceful youth movement against the political corruption of the media. Revelations of Cablegate also affected the course of a presidential election in Peru, and transformed the media in Brazil. In 2016, the DNC leaks and publication of Podesta emails educated American people about how their political system works.
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Julian Assange, through his work with WikiLeaks, engaged in that type of vibrant journalism that revitalized the impulse for real democracy. By publishing vital information in the public interest, he defended public’s right to know, empowering ordinary people to actively participate in history.
Now, it is our responsibility to respond to this crisis of democracy through solidarity. Can each of us step up to the challenge to solve the problems that our leaders have created? Efforts to free Assange urge us all to claim and exercise the power inherent within that can restore justice to end this prosecution of free speech.
Countercurrents.org, December 30. Nozomi Hayase, PhD, is a writer who has been covering issues of freedom of speech, transparency and decentralized movements.
Today, 21 December 2018, WikiLeaks publishes a searchable database of more than 16,000 procurement requests posted by United States embassies around the world.
All US embassies post requests for quotations and job listings on their websites when they need to purchase goods or services. In some cases, these requests may hint at covert activities performed by US agencies in the country. For example, in an August 2018 procurement request for “Tactical Spy Equipment“, the US embassy in El Salvador asked vendors to provide 94 spy cameras, most disguised as everyday objects such as ties, caps, shirt buttons, watches, USB drives, lighters, and pens. Similar spy cameras were also requested by the US embassy in Colombia.
The majority of the procurement requests focus on mundane activities required for the day-to-day operation of embassies and consulates, such as construction projects, laundry service, and gutter cleaning. In one case, the US consulate in Guayaquil, Ecuador lost track of the number of fish in its fishpond and needed someone to count the fish and clean the pond. Interspersed among these banal requests are documents that provide insight into the priorities and agenda of the US Government abroad. For example, to promote trade interests in China, the US consulate in Shanghai requested the production of “three marketing and promotional videos that highlight U.S. beef quality”.
Even the banal requests may be worth scrutiny because numerous secret programmes are operated out of US embassies. WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 publications showed that the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence runs a covert hacking base out of the US consulate in Frankfurt and the documents disclosed by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA and CIA jointly operate a covert signals intelligence programme called the Special Collection Service, which uses US embassies around the world as bases for interception of communications and clandestine operations. These procurement documents do not appear to include details related directly to these programmes, but they do include information about the actual activities of the divisions used as cover for CIA programmes, note which jobs require security clearance, and provide clues about the existence of infrastructure that may be potentially useful to US intelligence services operating abroad, such as the data center at the Frankfurt consulate.
While these procurement requests are public information, they are only temporarily linked to from US embassy websites while the request is open. But even after the links to the requests are removed, the files remain online. This is because all US embassies use WordPress and the procurement documents are stored in their WordPress uploads folder. So although older procurement documents may not be obviously available, the WordPress uploads can be searched via both the search function on the embassy’s website and third-party search engines. The US Embassy Shopping List preserves these requests and makes them more accessible by collecting the documents uploaded to US embassy websites, filtering for the procurement-related files, and presenting them in a searchable database.
Wednesday’s decision followed a July ruling by the Ontario Securities Commission that Chan and his top executives “engaged in deceitful or dishonest conduct” that they knew constituted fraud and violated securities law.
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I am interested in Corruption, and the effectiveness of Canadian courts. Need to do follow-up. What happens? Does the $2.6 billion ever get paid out? Who are the players?
2012 – accountancy Ernst & Young, one of the firm’s auditors, agreed to pay C$117 million to settle its part in a shareholder class action involving the firm. It later agreed to pay an C$8 million penalty to the Ontario Securities Commission, but admitted no wrongdoing, for its audits of Sino-Forest.
What are the consequences for Ernst & Young? (“EY”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_%26_Young
2013 – EY agreed to pay federal prosecutors $123 million to settle criminal tax avoidance charges stemming from $2 billion in unpaid taxes from about 200 wealthy individuals advised by four Ernst & Young senior partners between 1999 and 2004.[18]
Ernst & Young (doing business as EY) is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, England, United Kingdom. EY is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and is one of the “Big Four” accounting firms.
| Revenue |  US$34.8 billion (2018)[3] |
|---|---|
| Owner | Ernst & Young LLP. |
The overall “owner” is a law firm. That’s convenient. I wonder how many other “settlements” have been negotiated for the criminal elements in the overall organization?
EY operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries. It has 250,000 employees in over 700 offices around 150 countries in the world. It provides assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to companies.[4]
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Matthew Miller
3 Min Read
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Canadian court has awarded plaintiffs $2.63 billion in a civil case against Sino Forest Corp co-founder and CEO Allen Chan, a decision that’s certain to lead to more litigation over one of the biggest cases of securities fraud by a listed Chinese firm.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Penny, in a 174-page judgment handed down late Wednesday, found that Chan engaged in fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence. He awarded damages in the amount of $2.63 billion. He also awarded $5 million in punitive damages.
Chan “abused his unique position” to “orchestrate an extremely large and complex fraud, resulting in the loss by Sino-Forest of billions of dollars”, wrote Justice Penny.
Sino-Forest, the failed timber firm, was a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, before short seller Muddy Waters LLC published a report in 2011 accusing the company of being a Ponzi scheme riddled with fraud, theft and undisclosed related-party transactions.
Between 2007 and 2010, the company raised more than $2.1 billion and C$800 million in Canada’s debt and capital markets.
Sino-Forest’s collapse became the symbol for a series of offshore-listed Chinese firms accused of similar fraud that subsequently collapsed, including most recently China Huishan Dairy Holdings (6863.HK).
Wednesday’s judgment is the first to definitively state that Sino-Forest was a fraud headed by Chan.
“Mr. Chan, rather than directing Sino-Forest’s spending on legitimate business operations, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into fictitious or over-valued lines of business where he engaged in undisclosed related-party transactions and funneled funds to entities that he secretly controlled,” Justice Penny wrote.
The litigation was brought in 2014 by Cosimo Borrelli, who was appointed Trustee of the SFC Litigation Trust and argued that Chan and executives Albert Ip, Alfred Hung and George Ho organized a massive fraud.
Borrelli did not respond to a request to comment on Thursday. But a source close to the case said that the Canadian court decision would facilitate other legal claims against the auditors, valuers, and other directors of the company.
In 2012, accountancy Ernst & Young, one of the firm’s auditors, agreed to pay C$117 million to settle its part in a shareholder class action involving the firm. It later agreed to pay an C$8 million penalty to the Ontario Securities Commission, but admitted no wrongdoing, for its audits of Sino-Forest.
Wednesday’s decision followed a July ruling by the Ontario Securities Commission that Chan and his top executives “engaged in deceitful or dishonest conduct” that they knew constituted fraud and violated securities law.
Reporting by Matthew Miller; Editing by Stephen Coates
“Unsettling Canada“, by Arthur Manuel, should be required reading, it’s a “page turner” to boot. I don’t have time just now to write more. The article below tells some of the story.
A companion book, easy to read, also enlightening:
The Haida Gwaii Lesson, A Strategic Playbook for Indigenous Sovereignty, by Mark Dowie. See
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QUOTES FROM “Unsettling Canada“:
P. 125, Chapter 10, The Battle in the Forest
. . . The lumber industry was, in fact, a big contributor to our poverty. In British Columbia, it is one of the most profitable industries, yielding (to be completed)
(will do more, later)
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THE GLOBE & MAIL:
Arthur Manuel at Standing Rock, North Dakota, in December 2016, with his daughter Kanahus Manuel.
Tupac Enrique Acosta
Arthur Manuel was born into indigenous activism. Working with the seeds his father, George, first sowed in the 1970s in the early days of Canada’s indigenous rights movement, the tireless B.C. aboriginal leader was on the front lines of the international fight for aboriginal title and self-determination right up until he drew his last breath.
“Art went into hospital on Jan. 5 and went from talking about organizing his next meeting to being on a respirator,” said his spouse, Nicole Schabus, a law professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. “He was sending people messages about the February meeting on the very day he went into the intensive care unit. He had been in North Dakota at Standing Rock just a couple weeks before that. He didn’t know how sick he was.”
Those who have worked alongside Mr. Manuel during a lifetime of indigenous activism were in awe of his commitment, strategic thinking and persistence, says indigenous policy analyst and long-time friend Russ Diabo. “Like his father, he definitely wasn’t in it for the money,” Mr. Diabo says. “The Manuel family is the closest thing we have in Canada to the Mandela family in terms of what they have sacrificed and contributed to First Nations rights.”
Mr. Manuel died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 11, at the age of 65. His shattered family and friends around the world say the Secwepemc Territory leader is irreplaceable. Ms. Schabus says his unexpected death galvanized his many supporters to carry on his legacy of activism. The Vienna-born Ms. Schabus first met Mr. Manuel in Geneva, Switzerland, in the late 1990s, when Mr. Manuel took his concerns with the Canadian treaty process to the United Nations to make the case that the process contravened UN principles regarding self-determination.
Community organizing was such a big topic of conversation at Mr. Manuel’s funeral on Sunday in Kamloops that one visitor noted to Ms. Schabus later that the service felt more like an educational opportunity than a funeral, especially with so many of the country’s highest-profile rights activists in attendance. (Mr. Diabo says the service was a powerful call to action, “more like a symposium.”)
Arthur Manuel was born Sept. 3, 1951 to Marceline (née Paul) of the Ktunaxa Nation and Grand Chief George Manuel of the Secwepemc Nation. He grew up on the Neskonlith reserve in the B.C. Interior, and went on to be educated at residential schools not because the government ordered him to, but because his impoverished father told his son he’d have to pick between residential school or a foster home. “[Arthur] didn’t have an easy life as a child,” Ms. Schabus says.
Mr. Manuel was at residential school when he first started organizing, to protest the terrible food. By his 20s, he was president of the national Native Youth Association. Over the years he went on to be a four-term elected chief of the Neskonlith Reserve, six-year chair of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council, spokesperson for the Interior Alliance, and co-chair of the Assembly of First Nations’ Delgamuukw Implementation Strategic Committee.
He continued as a spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade until his death, and was a director with the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples. He was a popular interview subject in the indigenous media; numerous video interviews can be found online of the unassuming and soft-spoken Mr. Manuel arguing passionately for indigenous self-determination and title.
Mr. Manuel’s father was president of the fledgling National Indian Brotherhood in the early 1970s – the foundation for what ultimately became the Assembly of First Nations – and of the World Council of Indigenous People. Arthur followed his father into indigenous activism from a young age and raised his own five children to do the same.
His twin daughters, Mayuk and Kanahus, have both served jail time for land-use protests at the Sun Peaks Resort, near Kamloops, in 2000 and 2001, and they continue to be involved in actions related to land use and resource management in their nation’s traditional territory. Arthur’s sister Doreen Manuel is a filmmaker who teaches and co-ordinates the Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking program at Capilano University.
Mr. Manuel’s family first attracted media attention in B.C. in the mid-nineties, when he and his then-wife, Beverly Manuel, owned a gas station and store on the Neskonlith Reserve. They successfully fought the federal government’s plan to create a complicated “coloured tag” system for cigarette sales, an attempt by Ottawa to combat cigarette smuggling by sorting buyers by race.
But it was his family’s long protest against Sun Peaks Resort that brought him the most headlines. Angered by the ski resort’s expansion plans and water-main construction on Neskonlith territory, Mr. Manuel and his supporters organized road blocks and protest camps for more than a year around the resort, 56 kilometres northeast of Kamloops. The case was in and out of B.C. Supreme Court for many years after that.
The foundation of Mr. Manuel’s activism was fighting for indigenous people’s rights to acquire and control traditional lands and the resources they hold.
He rejected the modern-day style of treaty negotiation, believing that it was more likely to lead to municipal-style governments under federal and provincial control rather than free indigenous nations controlling their own lands. Canadian law recognizes the inalienable right of indigenous people to their land, and Mr. Manuel pushed back hard against a B.C. government treaty strategy that envisioned First Nations agreeing to give up those rights in exchange for getting a treaty.
“It was the rise of the B.C. treaty process and the push to terminate Aboriginal title throughout British Columbia in the early nineties that drew Arthur into the struggle in a way that he would never turn back from,” wrote Dawn Morrison, chair of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Security for the B.C. Food Systems Network, in Mr. Manuel’s memorial booklet.
Mr. Manuel made the point in all his public presentations that as long as indigenous people in Canada control just 0.2 per cent of the land base, aboriginal poverty will never be addressed.
“Self-determination is the international remedy for colonialization,” he told CBC Radio in an interview about his 2015 book Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call. “The big issue is to deal with this 0.2 per cent so we can become more self-sufficient in our own territories. The land is big. There’s no reason why indigenous people should be totally impoverished generation after generation after generation when the land is that large.”
Mr. Manuel co-authored the book with his lifelong friend Ron Derrickson, a Kelowna developer and six-time elected chief of the Westbank First Nation who is known for being one of the wealthiest indigenous people in the country. (Mr. Derrickson funded much of Mr. Manuel’s international travel, and recently described his friend as “the most intelligent person I’ve ever known.”) The book won the 2016 Canadian Historical Association Aboriginal History Book Prize. The pair’s second book, Settling Canada, is expected to be released in April.
In addition to his writing, Mr. Manuel typically worked long into the night on organizing. “We all don’t have his endless energy,” Ms. Schabus says. “I lived with him. I saw that he was constantly working. But he was also a good dad and a good granddad. He was a good sle7e, which is Grandpa in his language. He used to come home from a meeting saying he didn’t want his grandkids to have to experience the same struggle.”
The Manuel family’s principled activism came at a price. Ms. Schabus recalls nights after the Sun Peaks protest when she and Mr. Manuel struggled to comfort his four-month-old grandson after his daughter Kanahus was jailed for four months for her part in the protest and wasn’t allowed to take the baby with her. The family was vilified as trouble-makers in some media accounts, and in the late nineties, Mr. Manuel often found himself on the wrong side of other indigenous leaders who supported the proposed B.C. treaty process.
For much of the past 15 years, Mr. Manuel’s activism focused increasingly on the international community. In 2009, he returned to Geneva to petition the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to review the B.C. treaty process. In 2003, he sided with the U.S. lumber industry in front of the World Trade Organization to successfully argue that logging on traditional aboriginal territory constituted a form of trade subsidy because the real owners of the land weren’t being compensated. Frustrated with his inability to sway the thinking of Canada’s federal and provincial governments, he opted to ignore them instead.
“Going to Ottawa is a waste of time,” he told Red Rising Magazine in an interview published last summer. “You have to quit crying on the shoulder of the guy who stole the land. … Take lawful action, but back it up by going all the way to Geneva.”
But even while on the world stage, he remained committed to regional activism, according to those who knew him. The February meeting he was organizing at the time of his death was to plan the next steps for stopping the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs 1,150 kilometres between Strathcona County (near Edmonton), Alta., and a marine terminal in Burnaby, B.C.
“He gave us the map,” Ms. Schabus says of her late spouse’s recent work. “We’ve just got to keep pulling the pieces together. My world is shaken, but at the same time I’ve learned so much from these years with him. We must keep it going.”
In the hours after his death, friend and fellow activist Naomi Klein tweeted: “Arthur Manuel had a beautiful and transformational vision for the world we need. But he died fighting in the world we have. Heartbroken.”
Mr. Manuel leaves behind Ms. Schabus; sisters Emaline, Martha, Doreen and Ida; brothers George, Richard and Ara; children, Kanahus, Mayuk, Ska7cis and Snutetkwe; and nine grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son Neskie Manuel, who died in 2011.
From: Dianne
I am needing extra information on Ecuador and more info on Correa and of course the Assange case and I know that you were working in that direction a while back. I see the attached article is blaming Correa for taking big loans from China.
| Indigenous peoples denounce ongoing land rights violations in Ecuador
Indigenous people in Ecuador say their territorial rights are being systematically violated, according to a top United Nations official. |
REPLY
Hi Dianne,
Re your question: article is blaming Correa on taking big loans from China
I can tell you some things. But I have to be careful about objectivity in sorting through the information:
my introduction to Rafael Correa was through his actions in support of Julian Assange. Correa is fearless; he may have saved Assange’s life. I have sketchbook information of some of what Correa accomplished for the Ecuadorean people. And have a sense of how he infuriated the powers-that-be.
I can offer a hypothesis as to why Indigenous Ecuadoreans might be critical of Correa.
Indigenous people were vocal and critical about Correa’s failures in the Amazon forests. At first it seems incongruous. For example, Correa was determined that the pillagers would pay. Under Correa the Constitutional Court upheld US$9.5 billion in fines levied against Chevron-Texaco for the damage it did in Ecuador’s Amazon. (Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno, is un-doing a lot of what Correa accomplished; the fines will not be paid.)
Hypothesis: The issues related to resource extraction for Ecuador’s indigenous people and Canada’s first nations are the same. To me, you can understand the seeming-incongruity in Ecuador (indigenous people critical of Correa who has championed environmental issues in the Amazon Rain Forest) by understanding the issue as it exists in Canada.
– – –
A President of Ecuador, or a Premier or Prime Minister in Canada can actively support sustainable logging, for example – – protection of the environment.
But that’s not the basic issue. The basic issue is Indigenous Sovereignty.
The Manuel family in Canada has been incredibly effective in leadership on this issue in Canada, but also in helping to organize indigenous peoples around the Planet. It is likely that Ecuadorean indigenous people have participated in the international meetings of indigenous people, the same ones as organized and attended by Canadian First Nations.
I hypothesize that Correa was acting in the same frame-of-reference that most Canadian leaders still embrace. They can’t envision what Haida Gwaii, for example, has accomplished. It’s new, pretty unique, and interesting.
Ref: The Haida Gwaii Lesson, A Strategic Playbook for Indigenous Sovereignty, by Mark Dowie, 2017).
I haven’t posted excerpts from the book, but hope to.
In Haida Gwaii it’s a fait accompli, although still a work-in-progress. The book “Unsettling Canada“, is very good, the same issue, but as it exists in other parts of Canada.
I have posted excerpts from it: Unsettling Canada, excerpts; Also, the obituary of its’ author Arthur Manuel.
Your question is about the China role. Wikipedia quotes Correa re China:
“On this point he (Correa) mentioned that in the year 2006, 75% of the Ecuadorian petroleum went to United States, in exchange for nothing. “Now we have 50% of the committed petroleum with China, in exchange for thousands of millions of dollars to finance the development of this country.[183]”
Ecuador’s national emergency response system which also has capability in face-recognition technology (surveillance), has a drone component, etc. is Chinese-built and funded. (There’s no evidence the Ecuadorian government has used these advanced technologies for ends beyond typical crime control.)
What you have is numbers of countries (Ecuador (under Correa), Bolivia, Chile, some African countries gone over to the CHINESE for technologies, long-term contracts, that the Americans would see as threatening to American interests.
CONSEQUENCE: You may know better than I the South American countries that have undergone regime changes, from left-leaning, to ones “supportive” of the Americans (like the change in Ecuador from Correa’s leadership to current President Moreno’s – – an about-face). I could be wrong, of course, but to me the EHM (American empire) is at work, trying to re-take control; they got to Moreno. With that goes all the dirty tricks – – smear campaigns, intimidation, show of force (the U.S. Southern Command military ship on the Ecuadorean coastline). The American military-industrial-congressional complex is master of the techniques.
The problem for the Americans is that “the game is up” so to speak. Too many people know how they operate. So now the propaganda doesn’t work as well as it used to; they are reduced to show of and use of force. I think we are experiencing a change in the balance-of-powers in the world.
Thoughts regarding the article you read:
For national leaders like Correa, in order for these countries to escape the poverty and domination that has plagued them under American colonialism, they have to find alternative sources of capital – – Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N.’s special rapporteur, does not factor that in.
This is the same battle being fought by First Nations in Canada. The Constitution Express was a movement organized in 1980 and 1981 to protest the lack of recognition of Aboriginal rights in the proposed patriation of the Canadian constitution by the Trudeau government. A group of activists led by George Manuel, then president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs chartered two trains from Vancouver that eventually carried approximately one thousand people to Ottawa to publicize concerns that Aboriginal rights would be abolished in the proposed Canadian Constitution. When this large-scale peaceful demonstration did not initially alter the Trudeau government’s position, delegations continued on to the United Nations in New York, and then to Europe to spread their message to an international audience. Eventually, the Trudeau government agreed to recognize Aboriginal rights within the Constitution. Contemporary activist Arthur Manuel calls the Constitution Express the most effective direct action in Canadian history, as it ultimately changed the Constitution.1
The First Nation, or Indigenous People, or Aboriginals might have the right IN THE CONSTITUTION, but they have to fight on, to achieve implementation or activation of the right. In my experience it’s not Governments that uphold Charter Rights. Citizens have to battle to defend the rights.
The Constitution of Ecuador was enacted in 2008. Rafael Correa was President. There was a lot of opposition from the entrenched powers. As I understand things, I doubt that Ecuador would have a solid Constitution and protected rights, if not for the determination of Correa. See the URL (“Background“) below, for a few details.
The work to figure out HOW to create a “truly plurinational” society requires a huge amount of talk and dedication.
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa)
You know that the wrath of the Americans will come down upon him. It will start with smear campaigns. He has to be discredited. Somewhere, exaggerated claims about Correa’s relationships with the Chinese will be planted.
Today, working with President Lenin Moreno (Correa’s successor), the U.S. has a lot to dismantle.
Among other things, (I titled this “Sticking your finger in the eye of the bully”)
Can you imagine how the U.S. reacted? – – Correa effectively removed Assange from the clutches of the CIA, NSA, Pentagon, when he gave Assange asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
THEN, Correa Doing what “developed countries” would do, if the culprit wasn’t the U.S. – – took a principled stand re Edward Snowden 2013-06-28 Ecuador suspends preferential trade with US over Snowden affair
(John Perkins quotes from a conversation with Correa in which he asked Correa about the EHM and jackals: Correa said he had been approached by the EHM. Correa was aware of the dangers in what he did; he was aware of the assassinations of Roldos and Torrijos (Ecuador and Panama) by the CIA-jackals)
– CLASSIC TOOL #1: start a smear campaign against dissenting leadership. Correa was accused of various things, arrest warrants issued; his lawyer reported that Interpol did not react because of insufficient evidence.
– I believe that the Americans got to Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno. Much of what Correa accomplished is being undone, as mentioned. The people of Ecuador remain vocal and active supporters of Correa. They’re out on the streets protesting various Government actions (under Moreno), but with scant attention from Western media.
– The vigils for Assange, by respected people (Hedges, Ellsberg, McGovern, and so on) also acknowledge and endorse Correa. To me, they would not be doing that if Correa lacks integrity.
Anyhow, the way I piece things together: Correa is straight. As with all of us, some of his decisions will have been poor ones. The attempts to discredit and take him down are predictable, given the eyes he stuck his finger in. The powers that be don’t like that. Correa has exhibited amazing courage. The same with Assange.
Any questions?!
Sandra
The “Lesson” turned out to be a primer for the next book that kind of fell into my lap, a riveting story well told – – read about it below. And about its remarkable author, Arthur Manuel, at
“Unsettling Canada”, excerpts; Also, the obituary of its’ author Arthur Manuel.
From Good Reads:
“There is room on this land for all of us and there must also be, after centuries of struggle, room for justice for Indigenous peoples. That is all we ask. And we will settle for nothing less.” Arthur Manuel
“All the government has to do to begin real and substantive negotiations with Indigenous peoples is to follow the recommendations of its own Royal Commission, which repudiated the racist and internationally discredited doctrine of discovery and recognized our right to self-determination.” Arthur Manuel
Scott Neigh
An important book by an important Indigenous movement leader who died unexpectedly at the beginning of the year. A mix of history, memoir, and analysis. Well written, very readable. A great window into some of the most important political events in this country in the last half century, and some political ideas that will be crucial as we collectively shape the next half century. And though it wasn’t at all news to me, I still felt quite affected by his matter-of-fact presentation of the relentlessly awful colonial behaviour of the Canadian state — no less now than in his father’s generation, even if the tactics and rhetoric have changed some, and no less under Trudeau’s suave Liberals than when Harper’s ham-fisted and more openly racist Conservatives were at the helm. A must-read for any settler serious about supporting Indigenous struggles and about seeking a version of reconciliation that isn’t just a re-packaging of colonialism.
Jane Kirby rated it – it was amazing
I read this because Idle No More was urging people to. I didn’t expect I would
1) learn so much or
2) find it so engaging and interesting.
This should be required reading.
Claire Thompson rated it – really liked it
I learned a lot about first nations issues (land claims, Gustafson Lake standoff, the Oka Crisis, P. Trudeau’s White Paper, protest at Todd Mountain/Sun Peaks) . . .
Alan rated it – it was amazing
If you’re afraid of the future you should read this book. This book holds lessons for all non-indigenous people, and every one of us needs to read this to understand that the future can be a place where justice can happen for us all.
= = = = = = =
Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call by Arthur Manuel and Chief Ronald Derrickson describes the victories and failures, the hopes and the fears of a generation of activists fighting for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada. Unsettling Canada chronicles the modern struggle for Indigenous rights covering fifty years of struggle over a wide range of historical, national, and recent international breakthroughs.
Arthur Manuel has participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues since its inception in 2002. Since 2003, he has served as spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade (INET). Working through INET, Manuel succeeded in having the struggle for Aboriginal title and treaty rights injected into international financial institutions, setting important precedents for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada. Manuel is a spokesperson for the Defenders of the Land.
Author of the book’s Afterword, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson has been elected chief of his Westbank First Nation six times and is one of the most successful First Nations business people in Canada. He was made a Grand Chief by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in recognition of a lifetime of political and economic leadership. Naomi Klein provides the Foreword.
The volume has the occasional black and white photograph, references, and an index. This is an important contribution to the current literature about First Nations’ perspectives on their roles in the political and sovereignty movements across Canada from the 1950s, the White Paper, the Red Paper, Constitution Express, Oka, RCAP, Delgamuukw, Sun Peaks, international lobbying, the Fourth World, and Idle No More. An important call to action for all Canadians from a respected First Nation leader and activist.
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A few weeks ago, Gerry White slipped into the pilot’s seat of his helicopter and took off for a remote lake in Newfoundland.
He flies there a couple of times a year, sometimes to salmon fish in the area, but often just to glimpse the business venture that never came to be.
A dozen years ago, Mr. White’s proposal to annually withdraw one-quarter of Gisborne Lake’s water and pipe it to a harbour for export via tankers was quashed. The plan was one of a handful in the 1990s that touched off intense national wrangles over whether Canada should treat its water like other tradable natural resources, such as trees, coal and petroleum.
The answer then from most Canadians was a resounding no, and federal and provincial politicians took heed.
Today, as federal politicians fan out across the country to wage an election campaign, there is little appetite to reignite a debate on water exports, as was suggested by former prime minister Jean Chrétien last week. Mr. White, though, maintains it’s only a matter of time before Canada begins trading water.
“There will be a day,” said the long-time Newfoundland land developer and construction entrepreneur. “It will eventually come because it’s needed.”
Despite persistent public opposition, the export debate has never entirely receded in Canada. At an international water conference in Toronto last week, Mr. Chrétien – whose government pushed in 1999 for a prohibition on bulk water trade – suggested a new national conversation on the matter is needed, noting the country exports oil and gas. On which side of the debate he would stand, Mr. Chrétien said he doesn’t know.
“When you look at the debate, countries who are lacking water are next to countries that have water. Imagine the difficulties of this problem,” the long-time federal leader told reporters. “It’s why some people say that there might be war over water in the future.”
Canada, of course, lies next to a country whose economy is the largest in the world and whose population is 10 times greater than ours. Parts of the United States have struggled with intermittent water shortages for decades.
In once-booming Las Vegas, for instance, more than $150-million (U.S.) has been doled out over the past 12 years in rebates to encourage businesses and residents to rip out their water-thirsty lawns. In central and southern Florida last week, officials declared a water shortage after one of the driest winters on record; residents have been ordered to limit their outdoor water use.
Canada, on the other hand, is considered rich in H{-2}O, containing 6.5 per cent of the world’s renewable fresh water. However, some regions, such as southern Alberta and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, grapple with supply strains.
Proposals to transfer water to the U.S. from Canada stretch back to the 1950s. One early plan suggested damming northern James Bay to divert water through a network of canals to the Great Lakes and eventual transfer south of the border.
Canadians’ resistance to exporting water isn’t the only thing that has stopped these schemes. The infrastructure required to collect, transport and handle a liquid denser than light crude oil is extremely costly. The estimated price tag of the James Bay project was $100-billion.
With Canada’s lakes and rivers seemingly off limits to large exports, Alaska has become the staging area for water entrepreneurs. The state is the only American jurisdiction that allows bulk exports, opening its waterways in 1992. Of the eight applications received by the state, only one has been approved, but it’s unclear when or even if exports will flow from Blue Lake reservoir.
Alaska businessman Terry Trapp, one of the bid’s proponents, said negotiations are continuing with potential customers in China and the Middle East. Many years after the process began, the cost of infrastructure remains a major obstacle.
“It sounds like a simple thing, but it’s something that has never been done before,” said Mr. Trapp, who owns a water-bottling company. “In terms of the countries that need [water] most don’t have the infrastructure in place.”
British Columbia NDP MP Peter Julian has a few words of advice to Americans who might still be eyeing Canada’s fresh water: Look to conserve.
“We’re seeing shortages across the United States because they don’t have an effective water stewardship policy in place,” said Mr. Julian, the party’s international trade critic. “To say that allowing companies to sell water is going to fix that or in any way help the current situation would be foolish.”
In Canada, MPs of all political stripes are in no mood to entertain water exports. Mr. Chrétien’s call for a debate was essentially rejected by the NDP, the federal Conservative government, and the party he led for nearly 13 years, the Liberals. All said they oppose large water exports.
“The vast, vast majority of Canadians are against the idea of exporting our water in bulk,” said Quebec Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, noting most of the nation’s renewable water flows north, away from large population centres. “It could cause irreparable damage to ecosystems. Moving water around brings invasive species from one basin into another.”
Mr. Scarpaleggia, the party’s water critic, said Canada should instead look to export its scientific and technological expertise to developing countries coping with water scarcity – a growing problem in many regions of the world, particularly the Middle East and North Africa.
Last year, the Harper government introduced a bill designed to strengthen existing protections against bulk water removal, though some critics contended it had loopholes. That bill, however, was never debated in Parliament and is one of several pieces of legislation that died on the order paper because of the election call.
As the international panel on water conflicts neared an end last Tuesday in Toronto, Mr. Chrétien made note of the contentious proposal to export water from Newfoundland’s remote Gisborne Lake. Mr. Chretien, who was prime minister at the time of the proposal, recalled he was shocked by Canadians’ emotional opposition to the trade plan.
“Whenever we have a question on water it’s always a huge controversy,” he told the audience of leading water experts and policy-makers.
“But when you look at the reality, here we have a lot of water,” Mr. Chrétien added, before posing this question: “Are we able to share this benefit we’re having that others don’t have?”
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