http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcGKn8Qp8zk&feature=player_embedded Sean Penn – Bush Lies + Lies + Lies + Lies (52, 248 views)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qexLv_rhbvo Sean Penn, Truth Behind Public Media, USA Iran (99, 101 views)
Sep 172011
Sandra Finley
Sep 162011
Dear Councillor Hunt,
I left a phone message for some Councillors, spoke with Councillor Bose, and THEN received the news: Bush’s Toronto appearance cancelled (the Toronto Star).
The cancellation of Bush’s Toronto visit happened because:
– Three young people and a professor stood up and said “no”.
– An employee resigned over it.
I ask you to stand with Canadians. It is easy enough to cancel Bush’s visit to Surrey/Vancouver. I presume that you only need a majority vote of Council.
People in Canada DO care about morality and about the rule of law.
We DO care that people responsible for an illegal war of aggression , for the deaths of more than a million people, for the absolute destruction of a society, its homes, hospitals, schools, museums, infrastructure, and environment should get off scot-free. And worse yet, be feted and congratulated and celebrated.
If an American administration did to us in Canada what they did to Iraq, I cannot in honesty know that I would not hate the Bush Administration. If I then saw the citizens of other countries welcoming and enriching the source of the destruction of my world, would I not loathe those people, too?
An illegal war, injustice of any kind, creates hatred that lasts for centuries. The stories are handed down.
We seem to have lost our moral compass. People in Toronto have taken a step toward reclaiming it. In February 2011, the people in Switzerland caused Bush to cancel a speaking engagement in Geneva, for fear that he would be arrested.
Please, let us celebrate the people of Surrey for helping to re-establish who we are. Bush’s visit needs to be cancelled.
Sincerely,
Sandra Finley
What is my interest?: Bush came to Saskatoon (my home) in 2009. I researched the law and the evidence against Bush. There is no doubt that he needs to be tried for war crimes. Please see my blog (www.sandrafinley.ca ). There is a chronology of the work that is being done around the world to see that Bush is brought to justice.
Please call if you have questions. I am happy to provide assistance, if I can, 306 373 8078 .
Sep 152011
This is so amazing! Bush’s Toronto appearance cancelled !
The cancellation happened because:
– Young people and a professor stood up and said “no”.
– An employee resigned over it.
Too cool!
NOW! We have to get Bush stopped in Surrey (October 20th).
Earlier we circulated 2011-08-01 The Swiss caused Geo Bush to cancel his visit to Geneva. Can we do the same? Bush speaking in Surrey, B.C. (Vancouver) Thursday, October 20th, 2011.)
Darn right we can do what the Swiss did! Torontonians already did it. Now for B.C..
Yesterday I started phoning Surrey City Councillors (Contact info: http://www.surrey.ca/city-government/2999.aspx).
The conversation with Councillor Bob Bose was great. I sent him the link to the information we have collected, the on-going work in Canada, the U.S., and Europe to get Bush arrested and tried at the International Criminal Court.
We talked about people in the Vancouver area who would want to be involved in the work to get Bush arrested when he arrives in Vancouver. I was happy that I called the Councillor; I met another remarkable Canadian.
If YOU know anyone in Surrey, please let them know about the effort. The Municipal Election is in November. Electors may want to think twice about voting for Mayor Dianne Watts who is one of the people behind bringing Bush to Surrey.
Gail Davidson, a major driver in the effort to uphold the rule of law, writes:
Please step up your opposition to Bush’s scheduled visit to Surrey BC on October 20th.
The September 20th visit was apparently cancelled in response to student opposition.
TAKE ACTION:
Insist that Bush be barred from Canada as an accused war criminal or arrested on his arrival in accordance with the law.
Send LAW”s letter (click on our letter ) outlining Canada’s legal duty to ensure that George W. Bush, being a person suspected on reasonable grounds of torture and other grave crimes, will not receive safe haven from prosecution for torture (and other crimes) in Canada, to your MP and MLA.
Click on: Email Addresses for Canadian MP’s
We’re on a roll!!
Sep 152011
By Mike Desouza, Postmedia News September 15, 2011
A pair of “research” accounts at the University of Calgary, funded mainly by the oil and gas industry, were used for a sophisticated international political campaign that involved high-priced consultants, lobbying, wining, dining and travel with the goal of casting doubt on climate change science, newly released accounting records have revealed.
The records showed that the strategy was crafted by professional firms, in collaboration with well-known climate change skeptics in Canada and abroad, allowing donors to earn tax receipts by channelling their money through the university.
All of the activities and $507,975 in spending were organized by the Friends of Science, an anti-Kyoto Protocol group founded by retired oil industry workers and academics who are skeptical about peer-reviewed research linking human activity to global warming observed in recent decades.
“Shouldn’t the science of climate change be on the agenda for [the UN climate conference]?” asked a pair of ads that appeared in the Montreal Gazette on Nov. 28 and Nov 29, 2005, inviting the public to a Friends of Science threeday event outside of the first international meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol, where climate skeptics proceeded to attack Liberal government environmental policies at the start of a federal election campaign.
The two ads – worth $2,070 – and about $4,000 in travel costs to the event in Montreal for an Alberta-based communications consultant (earning $100 an hour) and an academic, were purchased through accounts set up in the fall of 2004 following a request by University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper, according to the records, released to Postmedia News by the university under orders from Frank Work, the information and privacy commissioner of Alberta.
“I don’t know about [whether we were there] to disrupt the conference. We were there to present our views,” said Douglas Leahey, president of the Friends of Science up until June 2011.
“We think that the conference should have presented both views, not just one of a propaganda exercise … This was part of our research activities to find out what the other side was doing and how we were interacting with them.”
Cooper was proposing to produce a DVD that would analyze debates about climate change science and policies in partnership with the Friends of Science, with a $175,000 donation from Talisman Energy, an Alberta-based oil and gas company, to kick-start their efforts.
Cooper declined to comment on “explicit details,” but said that all money was used to produce the DVD and “publicize its existence.”
“There was a debate going on at the time about (whether humans were causing global warming) and it was not being discussed outside a tiny cadre of climatologists,” Cooper said in an email.
“Happily, that is no longer the case. Moreover, I viewed this issue and I still view this issue as a public policy matter more than a scientific one. How else would a political scientist be expected to view such matters?”
The project recruited APCO Worldwide, a public relations firm that produced a detailed budget and “strategic” communications plan, to coordinate “letters from experts” in support of the video, obtain media coverage in Canada, the U.S. and possibly Europe, and publish opinion pieces in mainstream newspapers to promote the product.
The university paid nearly $250,000 to APCO Worldwide, Morten Paulsen Consulting and Fleishman-Hillard Canada, where Paulsen also worked as a senior vice-president, before shutting down the accounts in 2007 after an audit that determined some activities were political in nature.
The university initially declined to release detailed invoices and records following a 2008 request under provincial freedom of information legislation and told the commissioner’s office during a recent inquiry that releasing the details was not in the public interest.
The university has also billed Postmedia News $415 for processing the request for information, arguing that waiving the fees in their entirety was also “not in the public interest.”
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Sep 152011
Bush’s Toronto appearance cancelled Published On Wed Sep 14 2011
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1053604–george-w-bush-s-toronto-appearance-canceled
A poster being distributed by students of Tyndale University and Seminary opposed to a fundraising event featuring George W. Bush. Tyndale is a non-denominational evangelical Christian university and seminary.
SUBMITTED IMAGE
Brendan Kennedy Staff Reporter
Next week’s appearance by former U.S. president George W. Bush at an event hosted by a local evangelical Christian university has been cancelled.
The decision came Wednesday, the same day three former students launched a petition http://www.tyndale.co/petitionEND urging the university to cancel the speech. On Tuesday, a class valedictorian and professor publicly spoke out against the appearance following the resignation of another staff member.
Bush was scheduled to speak Sept. 20 to about 150 people at an invitation-only breakfast hosted by Tyndale University College and Seminary, home to about 1,400 students at two campuses in Toronto’s north end.
Tyndale supporter Prem Watsa, chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings and sometimes referred to as “Canada’s Warren Buffett,” was sponsoring the event, which the administration said was intended to raise the university’s profile. Watsa did not respond to requests for comment.
A brief http://tyndale.ca/news/breakfast-canceledpostEND on the university’s website Wednesday afternoon announced the cancellation “due to scheduling change” but provided no details, nor did it mention Bush by name.
Tyndale spokeswoman Lina van der Wel confirmed the note pertained to the Bush event, which she said would not be rescheduled. She said she could not explain the “scheduling change,” nor say whether it was the university or Bush who cancelled.
University president Gary Nelson held a town-hall meeting at the school at noon Wednesday, a few hours before the decision to cancel was made public. Faculty reached by the Star refused to discuss what happened at the meeting.
Opposition to Bush’s appearance at the non-denominational evangelical university had been growing within the school’s community since Monday after a story http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1052707–bush-to-make-promotional-appearance-for-christian-collegestorystoryEND was published in the Star.
The following day, a class valedictorian and professor spoke http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1053278spoke out passionately against the visit. The university also confirmed “a valued employee” quit in protest.
Critics accused Tyndale of sacrificing its peaceful ideals to attract wealthy donors with the exclusive event. Many students and alumni also complained they only heard about the high-profile appearance through the news.
“They’re still not even saying his name on their web page,” said Dan Oudshoorn, a former student body president who graduated in 2006 and was part of the group that launched the petition. “I think it shows they were really trying to sneak in a cash grab through a means they know is dirty, they got busted doing it and now they’re trying to sneak back out again without taking responsibility.”
The Bayview Ave. school has a history dating back to 1894 as the Toronto Bible College. Renamed in 2003, it awards bachelor of arts degrees and offers graduate studies in theology.
Sep 152011
1. UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
Bring your friends for an energy transfusion!
Tuesday, Sept 27th
2-4pm
Room 241 Arts Bldg (Neatby-Timlin Lecture Theatre).
Th USFA Academic Freedom Committee is organizing an event featuring 2 speakers John Valleau and Paul Hamel. They are from the U of T and will be speaking about the issues at the Munk School of International Affairs.
POSTER: p://sandrafinley.ca/?p=3288
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
2. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
John Valleau, Great Minds for Whose Future? http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=3283
Paul Hamel, Profs allege donor influence http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=3285
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
- 3. Concerned Senators Create Website to Address Issues of Corporatization and Transparency at U of S
August 15, 2011. SASKATOON: A group of U of S Senators called USSWORD (University of Saskatchewan Senators Working to Revive Democracy) launch website to build a bridge between the U of S and the greater Saskatchewan community.
Check it out: http://ussword.blogspot.com/
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
4. I will try to maintain a file: in the righthand sidebar Go to “Knowledge Base”, click on “Take Back the University”. (Then scroll down past the headers. You’ll get a listing of more information).
Sep 152011
Sep 152011
http://thevarsity.ca/articles/38871
Nov 29, 2010 News 3
Profs allege donor influence
The Heritage Mansion is the future site of the Munk School of Global Affairs. Only senior staff and visitors will be able to use the front doors.
RYAN KELPIN/The Varsity 154
This article was published on Nov 29, 2010 in the News section
Two U of T profs argue philanthropists are shaping academic mission. Provost calls idea “crazy.”
Dylan C. Robertson
Two U of T professors say philanthropists are determining the university’s priorities, and not the faculty and students. Professors Paul Hamel and John Valleau believe there is a possibility that university benefactors could even shape academic work.
“We’re finding that philanthropy is driving the priorities of the university,” said Hamel. “They’re being set by administration, independent of what the faculty or the academy determines should be the priorities.”
The two started probing benefactor influence by examining the donor agreement [PDF] for the Munk School of Global Affairs, posted online by Hamel.
“The very first sentence states [the school] will be a top priority of U of T,” said Hamel. “Who decided that?”
The $35 million donation — the largest in U of T history — was announced in April and comes from The Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation. The remaining $25 million comes from the Ontario government. The charity also hired Ensight Canada, a lobbying firm, to advocate federal funding for the school.
Peter Munk is the Chairman of Barrick Gold, a multinational mining corporation. The school aims to become internationally renowned by housing programs involving global politics and a potential journalism program.
Hamel and Valleau’s main criticism is that the school was never determined as a priority at the Academic Board of Governing Council.
U of T Provost Cheryl Misak explained that through academic planning, faculties identify priorities and then seek donors who can meet their goals.
“Departments will put through their academic plans that they have an idea and we find ways of doing it. An academic priority is identified on the ground,” said Misak. “The idea that donors are driving academic priorities is crazy, just crazy.”
Misak said that, although not explicitly stated in meeting minutes, global affairs have organically become a top priority of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
“Every university wants to study things global, it’s a really serious priority of every university,” she said. “We already had a Munk Centre. The faculty wanted to enhance its offerings for student programs [so] we asked him for more. We’re really lucky Munk stepped up to the plate. Peter Munk has allowed U of T to be a world leader in the region of global affairs.”
But Hamel feels the donation was arranged to deal with limited resources.
“[The donation] was pursued by administration sort of like a business deal,” said Hamel, explaining how priorities require resources and noting that the deal comes in the midst of the faculty’s almost $60 million budget shortfall [PDF].
Of the charity’s $35 million donation, $15 million is set to be donated in annual increments until 2017. A university liaison must report to the charity each year. Hamel says over the course of the donations, school directors will be conscious that “hanging in balance is $15 million” opening potential for “influencing the academic mission of the university.”
Misak says that reporting to the charity is a matter of accountability, not agenda-setting.
“When people give, they give for a purpose. They want to know the money was actually used for that purpose,” said Misak.
“You just want to have a check to make sure the money given to where it’s intended. Occasionally, when someone gives a lot of money […] they want the school to be really great, not just sort-of-great. So it’s [the initial] $10 million donation and then we review that it’s on the track to greatness.”
“We need to revisit the structure of governance at the University of Toronto,” said Hamel, adding that he and Valleau are now examining other donor agreements and have started presenting to other faculty members.
They also take issue with the agreement’s space usage of the school, located in the Heritage Mansion at Bloor Street West and Devonshire Place.
The donor agreement states that the Canadian International Council, a corporate think tank including Peter Munk and Munk School director Janice Stein, gets up to 25 per cent of the building.
“We’re having a space problem at this university,” said Hamel. He admitted that CIC will pay rent for its space, but noted it will share areas like meeting and dining rooms.
“There’s not enough space for classrooms, study space, but they get space,” he said.
Of the agreement’s requirements, Hamel finds the front door policy the most bizarre.
The agreement states that “the main entrance of the Heritage Mansion will be a formal entrance reserved only for senior staff and visitors to the School and the CIC.” Others must enter at secondary entrances.
“It’s so pernicious,” said Valleau. “It seems so out-of-touch with the social mores of the university [and] doesn’t seem to be an important contribution to scholarly life.”
“I can even walk into Simcoe Hall in the front door, like anyone else,” said Hamel. “The point of this university is not to make it hierarchical and exclusive in certain domains, the point of the place is to make it open to everybody. And here explicitly written in the agreement, and agreed to by the university, is precisely the opposite.”
He also noted the agreement’s emphasis on branding. For all eight years of the donation, the foundation will contribute $250,000 annually to branding. The university will hire a media-tracking service to examine the school’s media coverage.
“To agree in advance to [the branding campaign] seems like an extraordinary thing to do as it appears to limit university authority,” said Valleau.
“[This] runs completely counter to the essence of what an academic place is supposed to be, because branding and marketing are really often antithetical to academic work,” said Hamel, asking if academic work unfavourable to Munk’s corporate involvement would be publicized.
“It’s amazing how much emphasis is put on branding in the document.”
Misak says the university community has achieved much because of its benefactors.
“We don’t get enough funding from government and tuition to make these investments. I get a little exercised over this,” said Misak. “What we’ve been able to do over the past decade because of our benefactors: public health, nursing, global affairs, social work; these are all our biggest gifts from the past decade. We need to celebrate our donors.”
But Valleau says it’s a question of independence.
“[U of T] is under pressures and the question is how it’s coping in satisfying these pressures,” said Valleau. It appears there is no governing structure serving the university in a meaningful way.“
Hamel said he believes university administration is glad he and Valleau are looking into donor agreements, since universities are about critical thinking. He noted that administration provided the donor agreement quickly upon request and without question.
The Peter and Melanie Munk Charitable Foundation, which shares a phone number with Barrick Gold, did not return an interview request by the time of publication.
You might also like:
Does the Munk School belong to U of T? New book criticizes U of T fundraising In retrospect LinkWithin
Sep 152011
http://munkoutofuoft.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/great-minds-for-whose-future/
Great Minds for Whose Future?
Posted on January 15, 2011 by underminingsustainability
Corporatization and Resistance, UC Berkeley to U of T
WHAT: Anti-Corporatization teach-in
WHEN: Saturday, January 22 · 10:00am – 2:30pm
WHERE: Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto
Event Details: Peter Munk is the founder and chairman of the world’s largest gold-mining corporation. Last year the Munk Charitable Foundation donated a large sum to the University of Toronto in order to create the Munk School of Global Affairs. In an era of chronic public underfunding of post-secondary education, universities are becoming increasingly reliant on private donations. This model of funding has changed how universities operate and how post-secondary education is conceptualized. At the University of Toronto, we are becoming increasingly concerned around issues of academic freedom and fairness in academic planning.
Financial crisis and austerity have ignited a new wave of student protest around the world, from Berkeley to London, Athens to San Juan. Our intention with this event is to empower local critical thinkers and activists to devise our plan in the fight for just education.
Join us for a panel presentation on corporatization, its effects, and resistance. Speakers include Ali Tonak, an organizer from UC Berkeley active in the campaign against British Petroleum, a speaker from the the Extractive Industries Research Group at York University, Sakura Saunders, editor of protestbarrick, as well as Paul Hamel and John Valleau, two faculty members at UofT who write about issues of corporate influence on the university.
Stay to organize around these issues. Two groups – one focusing on the de-corporatizing of UofT’s structure, and the other focusing specifically on Barrick Gold and its relationship with the university – will be developing goals, strategies and time-lines for upcoming campaigns.
Our goal is to launch the “Reclaiming the U of T” campaign on January 22.
Endorsers
UTSU
CUPE 3902
USW 1998
Science for Peace
Protest Barrick
OPIRG-Toronto
GSU social justice committee
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
contact: email: anticorprut AT gmail.com
Bios:
Ali Tonak. PhD Student, College of Natural Resources, University of California – Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) – Ali is a student of Igancio Chapela and one of the organizers of the Stop BP-Berkeley Campaign
Sakura Saunders. Editor of ProtestBarrick.net and organizer
Paul Hamel. Director, Health Studies & Professor, University of Toronto
John Valleau. Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto.
Sep 142011
Forms of tuberculosis are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organisation has said.
Eastern Europe has the highest level of infection, while in western Europe, London has the highest TB rate of any capital city.
Launching a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the airborne infectious disease more effectively, the WHO’s European director warned on Wednesday that complacency had allowed a resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic costs in the future.
“TB is an old disease that never went away, and now it is evolving with a vengeance,” Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said.
TB is currently a worldwide pandemic that kills around 1.7 million people a year. The infection is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and destroys patients’ lung tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads through the air and can be inhaled by others.
According to the WHO 15 of the 27 countries with high cases of TB are in the WHO’s European region, which includes 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia.
Cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) – where the infections are resistant to first-line and then second-line antibiotic treatments – are spreading fast, with about 440,000 new patients every year around the world.
Rise of TB
More than 80,000 MDR-TB cases occur in the region each year, almost a fifth of the world’s total.
WHO said precise figures for XDR-TB are not available because most countries lack the facilities to diagnose it, but officially reported cases of XDR-TB increased six-fold between 2008 and 2009.
Treating even normal TB is a long and unpleasant process,with patients needing to take a combination of powerful antibiotics for six months. Many patients fail to correctly complete the course of medicines, a factor which has fueled a rise in drug-resistant forms of the disease.
Experts say around seven per cent of patients with straightforward TB die, and that death rate rises to around 50 per cent of patients with drug-resistant forms. WHO’s action plan for tackling tuberculosis emphasises the need for doctors and patients to be more aware of the disease and its symptoms, to diagnose and treat cases promptly with the right drugs, and follow patients up over many months or years to ensure they take their medications.
The WHO said that if the plan is fully implemented at estimated cost of $5bn, 127,000 people will be successfully treated for drug-resistant TB and 120,000 deaths will be averted by 2015.