Can you have democracy if you don’t have enforcement of the laws?
It’s a piece-of-cake to arrest the little guy for creating a public disturbance, the abusive alcoholic who was himself abused; the test is whether you have the balls to arrest the big guys.
But how much are WE willing to uphold the rule of law in this, our might-be democracy?
The responsible officials did not arrest George Bush when he came to Canada (twice) in 2009 — in spite of the fact that we gave them the evidence and the applicable laws a month in advance of Bush’s October visit.
So, the most powerful among us are NOT accountable under the law. What else am I to conclude?
When I stop believing that everyone is equal before the law, I distinguish between illusion (myth) and reality.
Has the myth been created by propaganda? Or, is it that we fail to update our knowledge base as the world changes … obsolete information becomes propaganda? Or was it propaganda from the beginning?
We have contributed to the efforts to have the laws applied to George Bush when he comes to Canada. We are unwilling to accept the hyperbole surrounding “justice for all”. We want the real thing: “equality before the law”. We are willing to fight for democracy.
We have looked at the efforts of Vince Bugliosi to get Bush and Company prosecuted for their crimes; and the work of Gail Davidson; the Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, who is pursuing prosecution of six of Bush’s lawyers. The previous email was about the efforts of Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel to have Donald Rumsfeld tried for war crimes (torture). The U.S. judge has ruled that the case will proceed. Below you will find the efforts of Splitting the Sky and of Francis Boyle. There are more.
The work of these people is essential if we are to have democracy. And so it is instructive to understand how our human qualities work : which of our qualities has moved these people to action?
It is seldom the human quality of reason that drives these efforts. Reason tells them that the forces joined against them are insurmountable. Friends tell them they are pissing in the wind, if they are trying to see that the laws apply to the most powerful among us.
I think (am I wrong?) that it is propaganda that leads us to buy into a current world view that says Reason is god. It goes unchallenged. Common sense, ethics, imagination, intuition, and memory are cut out of our wholeness, as John Ralston Saul points out. It would seem then, that Vince Bugliosi, Gail Davidson, Baltasar Garzon, Donald Vance, Nathan Ertel, Splitting the Sky, Francis Boyle and others are able to balance their other qualities with reason. Reason does not hold them captive in a state of inaction.
Part two (of six) of Love, Hate and Propaganda aired on CBC TV last week (March 11 & 12). Hitler had a dilemma. He wanted to takeover Poland; but especially with the experience of World War One, the German people did not want to make war against anyone. What a daunting task: create a mindset in the population to extinguish their resistance to making war on Poland!
Hitler used mass media (radio and the movies) to create an image, an illusion, of the people of Poland. They became vermin worthy only of extermination. . . . Poland was brutally attacked.
If you imagine yourself as a citizen, not of Poland in World War Two, but as a citizen of Iraq, I think you would see the current wars like the music of Bach: we are hearing a variation on the music of war – the theme (the means) does not change. In this variation the propaganda that allowed Bush to drop bombs on Iraq was weapons-of-mass-destruction, Muslims. Terrorists.
Taking equality before the law a step further: if everyone you know, knows about the very important struggles of the people to get George Bush and Company tried for their crimes against humanity, then at least one could say that “a free press” exists in this Canadian might-be democracy.
If people are generally unaware of the struggle, then “a free press” is a meaningless phrase. Propaganda omits one side of the story. And anyone who questions must be marginalized. Don’t tell their story; if you do, paint them into beings who are “radical” or “leftist” or “activist” or who “incite” the crowd to violence. Or, make them into despicable people.
KEVIN MARTIN and the Calgary Sun (“Citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush justified, court hears”, item 5 below) are to be congratulated for their coverage of the Splitting the Sky trial.
CONTENTS
(1) BEING CONSCIOUS OF OUR QUALITIES, SEEING THEM AT WORK
(2) CHRONOLOGY, BUSH TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES
(3) DAY ONE (March 8, 2010): CALGARY TRIAL OF SPLITTING THE SKY VERSUS GEORGE BUSH. REPORT by JOSHUA BLAKENEY.
(4) DAY TWO, TRIAL OF SPLITTING THE SKY. Report by indybay.
(5) CALGARY SUN, CITIZEN’S ARREST OF GEORGE W. BUSH JUSTIFIED, COURT HEARS
(6) GLOBAL RESEARCH’S NEWS REPORT ON SPLITTING THE SKY’S TRIAL
(7) JAN 19, 2010. LAW PROFESSOR FRANCIS BOYLE FROM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FILED REQUEST WITH INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC – THE HAGUE) FOR ARREST OF BUSH AND HIS COMPANIONS.
(8) NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO ARREST, I DON’T HAVE JURISDICTION. YES, YOU HAVE JURISDICTION, THE LAW OF COMPLEMENTARITY.
(9) BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS
The previous email was about:
CHICAGO, March 5, 2010 – Federal Judge Wayne R. Andersen issued an historic ruling that allows a lawsuit to proceed against former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld who allegedly authorized torture.
The case would not be, if Donald Vance and Nathan Ertelweren’t willing to tackle the issue.
At the same time (March 8, 2010), Splitting the Sky was on trial in Calgary because of his attempted citizen’s arrest in March 2009 of George W Bush for war crimes. Details of that court case appear below.
I put together a partial chronology of the on-going efforts by various people for the enforcement of laws as they apply to Bush and his companions. The chronology says Bush will be tried either domestically in the U.S., or by the International Criminal Court. It’s only a matter of time.
If George W Bush isn’t tried for crimes against humanity, it is questionable whether we have democracy in Canada, or in the U.S. I contend that we have corporatocracy; we are fighting for democracy.
The tragedy with the war crimes is that the killing and destruction happens, AND THEN the criminals are brought to trial. World War Two, and then the Nuremberg Trials. Rwanda, and then … the Iraq War and then …
The International Criminal Court (from wikipedia) came into being on July 1st, 2002 when the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court entered into force. The ICC can only prosecute crimes committed on or after July 1st 2002. The official seat of the court is in The Hague, Netherlands.
(I must contact wikipedia – the question of the JURISDICTION of the Court is addressed by Michael Byers in his book, “Intent for a Nation”. See the last item at the end of this email on the legal principle called COMPLEMENTARITY.)
The ICC website page lists their current work on Crimes Against Humanity in:
– Northern Uganda
– the Democratic Republic of the Congo
– the Central African Republic, and
– Darfur, Sudan (President Al Bashir).
More than these current trials, the ICC prosecution of the “Butcher of the Balkans” is perhaps better known:
Milosevic’s war crimes trial a 4-year marathon
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Slobodan Milosevic was regarded as the chief architect of the carnage unleashed during the breakup of Yugoslavia last decade.
(CNN) — Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial in The Hague, Netherlands, had just entered its fifth year when he was found dead Saturday in his cell.
He was the first sitting head of state to be indicted by a U.N. international tribunal and had been detained at the U.N. center near The Hague since June 2001.
Milosevic faced 66 counts for crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, in which tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims were killed or forced to flee. .. . . . . .
The rule of law, equality before the law, is critical in a democracy and in the world. This democracy belongs to no one else, except ourselves.
If the officials who have sworn an oath to uphold the law shrink before the task, then it is up to us to see that it is done. If it is uncomfortable for us to carry through on this, imagine that it is VERY difficult for the officials to do so. Their names are on their deeds in a very public way. By comparison we are anonymous.
If officials do not have direct communications and support from us to carry out their jobs under the law, they will only have the support of those who DO NOT WANT the rule of law to prevail. We truly have an important role to play.
Rumsfeld’s pleas to the court are outrageous:
“Rumsfeld asked the court to dismiss the case because he is a high-placed governmental official and argued that he was immune from suit even for allegations of torture. Mr. Rumsfeld also argued that due to his position, the Constitution permitted him to order interrogation techniques that are widely considered by human rights experts to be torture. . . “
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(1) BEING CONSCIOUS OF OUR QUALITIES, SEEING THEM AT WORK
My interpretation of John Ralston Saul (JRS): if we use our qualities, one-with-the-other in balance, we will not have all the problems created by being one-dimensional, linear-thinking rational.
P. 314 “On Equilibrium” by JRS: “There was – is – no real danger, only the fear. The fear of danger here is the fear of uncertainty. And because of that fear, reason can swing into deformity perhaps faster than any of our other qualities. (INSERT: the qualities are common sense, ethics, imagination, intuition, memory and reason)
All that is needed is a troubled time or a voice capable of exacerbating our fears, playing upon them, or a critical mass of insecure minds in a critical place. Suddenly we discover that our ability to think and argue has been locked up in methodology, truth and dogma. This is the cheapest, the fastest, way to self-confidence. And in fleeing the dangers of free enquiry, reason is blown immediately into the truly dangerous waters of certainty. Thought, after all, may be our most unusual quality. Perhaps it is also our most delicate, the one most immediately dependent upon the tension created by our other qualities.
That is why the worst thing we can do is to overstate the rational case. Of the six qualities it is the least capable of (dealing with a situation that is driven by fear and insecurity) …. Ethics can deal with the choices of life in a much more complex and interesting way.”
From the email sent March 10th,
“(4 of X) Propaganda, Democracy: Imagining “the other”, more re Kitty Werthmann”
John Ralston Saul says:
To use our qualities is to be conscious of our actions. .” He speaks of intuition as being a driver behind action.
Yes – I can see where it is intuition that compels me. I don’t know if JRS would say it this way: there are some things that you know you need to do. Common sense, ethics, imagination, memory and reason have a role to play. But it is when you add the 6th quality, intuition, to these other qualities that we move forward to “do something” to address the situation.
Unfortunately, our educational system often denies the legitimacy of intuition. We are trained right out of it. We don’t know what it is, or how it works and yet it is an essential human quality.
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(2) CHRONOLOGY, BUSH TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES
Canadians owe a debt of gratitude to Gail Davidson, Lawyers Against the War (L.A.W.), for years of relentless work on this topic. We would not be in a position to insist on the rule of law without the work done by Gail and others in her network of cross-borders contacts. The following list only highlights SOME of the efforts which are on-going through many organizations in the world. …
Feb 2011. Chronology updated. Please click on George Bush War Criminal (from “Pages” on www.sandrafinley.ca)
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(3) DAY ONE (March 8, 2010): CALGARY TRIAL OF SPLITTING THE SKY VERSUS GEORGE BUSH. REPORT by JOSHUA BLAKENEY.
Hi,
Here is my report from the first day of the STS vs Bush trail. Please feel free to disseminate and publish.
thanks,
Joshua Blakeney
Media Coodinator of Globalization Studies
University of Lethbridge
Judge Manfred Delong Meets Splitting the Sky
By Joshua Blakeney
Media Coordinator of Globalization Studies
University of Lethbridge
Today the trial of Splitting the Sky commenced. Splitting the Sky attempted a citizens’ arrest on credibly accused war criminal George W. Bush on March 17, 2009, and was arrested and jailed for doing so by police. Try as its representatives might to disguise their motivations with the kind PR spin doctoring we witnessed in the court today, the Calgary Police, the RCMP and its contractors were under the Harper government’s strict political orders to protect the Alberta home turf of the current minority government that came to power as the holder of the Bushite franchise in Canada. Some have termed this historic proceeding as “The Trial of Splitting the Sky versus George W. Bush” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP6DSMCXKLg). From what I witnessed firsthand on day one, the government attempt to manage this highly volatile convergence of law and politics was an exciting affair.
The morning’s proceedings were mostly filled with the testaments of the policemen involved in protecting Bush and arresting STS. Amazingly, when one of the policeman was asked why he had arrested the Mohawk activist, the official contended that he “was protecting STS” from Bush’s henchmen. He went on to say that Bush’s protectors carry “lethal weapons” and that they would in all likelihood have used them to kill the accused man. Rather than seek further information on Bush’s private-Blackwater-style militia, the lawyers on both sides of the case passed over this startling revelation.
The presiding magistrate, Judge Manfred Delong, initially appeared, in my view, to be siding with the Crown prosecutor against STS’s lawyer, Charles Davison. Davison’s initial submission asked the court to allow for a distinction between “Obstructing a Police Officer” and “Preventing a Police Officer from Performing his Duty.” Davison’s argument was disallowed by Judge Delong. From that point on, Mr. Davison appeared to be improvising in a defence on which the hopes of many in the anti-war activists are riding.
Certainly the turning point of the day came when STS took the stand to testify in his usual flamboyant, surprising and erudite manner. STS reminded the court that it was the same laws which the minority government eschewed vis-a-vis Bush which were invoked to keep British peace activist George Galloway MP out of Canada last March. STS opined: “All Galloway had been doing was bringing medical aide to Palestinians in Gaza, 2000 of whom Israel had massacred, but they barred Galloway from Canada using the same laws which they should have used to ban George W. Bush.”
My perception was that until STS testified, Judge Delong was more inclined to the Crown’s side of the argument, namely that the police were “keeping the peace” in a law-abiding manner by arresting STS. Once STS had outlined his justifications for seeking the arrest of Bush, the judge perked up markedly. Charles Davison’s main contentions revolved around the characterization of STS’s understanding at the moment he attempted the citizen’s arrest. STS informed the court that three documents most influenced his decision to arrest Bush. The first was a statement disseminated prior to Bush’s lecture date by Lawyers Against the War. It was directed to a number of law enforcement officials right up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In a concise yet rich and detailed intervention, LAW detailed why George W. Bush was inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (see: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12668).
The second document submitted to the court was a letter of solidarity written by former US Attorney-General Ramsay Clark. Over three decades Clark and STS have developed a deep and fruitful collaboration going back to the days when the latter was charged with killing a jail guard in the Attica prison debacle of 1971. The third document to be placed before the Court is entitled “Bush League Justice: Should George W. Bush be Arrested in Calgary, AB, and Tried for International Crimes.” It was authored by STS’s friend and colleague, Anthony J. Hall (http://www.voltairenet.org/article159233.html#article159233). I noticed that Judge DeLong, who had been particularly statue-like and expressionless prior to reading Hall’s essay, suddenly metamorphosed into an engaged human being apparently interested in this highly significant case in Canada’s history.
Not long after the period when Judge Delong had listened to STS’s impassioned oratory and viewed Professor Hall’s essay, the court was adjourned. The judge concluded by stating he was willing to stay until Thursday (i.e. for the full four days allotted for the trial) plus an extra day if necessary. The Judge’s looking ahead to a week-long trial can be deemed a victory for STS and his supporters as a five day event should allow for more evidence to be brought to light in a legal proceeding which is certainly one of the most significant trials ever to take place in Calgary. Judge Delong has been presented with a chance to create a beacon of a hope in a world afflicted with the prospect of never ending military strife as set in motion by the Cheney-Bush regime’s fraudulent Global War on Terror.
Tomorrow is the second day of the trial and STS’s lawyer may be calling Professor Anthony J. Hall to the stand to testify. Cynthia McKinney will arrive in Calgary on Tuesday evening. It is hoped the the court will give this indefatigable freedom fighter the green light to testify on Wednesday.
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(4) DAY TWO, TRIAL OF SPLITTING THE SKY. Report by indybay.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/09/18640418.php?show_comments=1#18640511
Day Two- The Trial of Splitting the Sky Versus George W. Bush
by Carol Brouillet ( cbrouillet [at] igc.org )
Tuesday Mar 9th, 2010 4:21 PM
. . . The Calgary Sun framed the trial by reiterating defense counsel Charles Davison’s assertions that his client’s attempts at breaching a police barrier to gain access to Bush were justified. Davison said that he will present evidence to support Boncore’s claim. Lawyers Against the War, had urged the RCMP to arrest Bush for crimes against humanity if he stepped on Canadian soil. That group asserted Bush was “inadmissible to Canada” as a suspected war criminal and said the former U.S. president should not be allowed into Canada. If he was deemed a suspected war criminal Bush would be disentitled to enter Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and would be breaking the law if he came here, Davison said. As a result, Boncore was entitled to make a citizen’s arrest since a crime was being committed.
The Crown prosecutor Tracy Davis argued that citizen’s arrests can only be carried out by a person witnessing a crime taking place and that Splitting the Sky was not entitled to make an arrest of George W. Bush.
The Calgary Sun’s article is entitled- Citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush justified, court hears. Russia Today also covered the story and interviewed Splitting the Sky.
Cynthia McKinney spoke in London yesterday. She first spoke to MPs and their assistants in in a committee room in parliament. She also spoke at a packed public meeting of some 150 people in the School of Oriental and African Studies, and received a standing ovation at the end of her talk. She was supported by 9/11 authors Nafeez Ahmed and Ian Henshall, who also gave good speeches, and by an excellent chairwoman: Dr Jay Ginn, who has been a long term peace campaigner since the 1960s. Cynthia read out to the meeting a prepared statement of support to Splitting the Sky which was acclaimed by near unanimous applause: . . .
The Immigration law that was used to prevent entry into Canada by George Galloway states:
“A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for:
in an act of espionage or an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada;
(b) engaging in or instigating the subversion by force of any government;
(c) engaging in terrorism;
(d) being a danger to the security of Canada;
(e) engaging in acts of violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada; or
(f) being a member of an organisation that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c).”
Lawyers Against the War had urged Canada to recognize that, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Bush should have been inadmissible, and as a person suspected of torture, then he should either prosecuted in Canada for torture or extradited to another country that is willing and able to prosecute as required by the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 7.
Splitting the Sky presented three documents which influenced his actions, the first was Lawyers Against the War request RCMP to investigate George W. Bush for War Crimes- W is reported to be planning to visit Calgary, Alberta on or before March 17, 2009, the second was a letter of solidarity written by former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, the third was an article Time for Accountability- Should George W. Bush Be Arrested in Calgary, Alberta, To Be Tried For International Crimes? by Professor Anthony J. Hall. The judge concluded the day by saying that he would allow the defense four, and possibly five days to present evidence, which in itself, was a victory for the defense. Cynthia McKinney will be arriving this evening in Calgary and speaking publicly, and hopefully testifying on Wednesday.
The big question before the judge is whether his court is a court of law, a court serving those with great political power, a court serving the cause of justice and accountability, and whether global public opinion bears any weight or is paying any attention to this case.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con…
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Comments
by Anthony J. Hall
Wednesday Mar 10th, 2010 10:19 AM
Judge Manfred Delong shut down the trial of Splitting The Sky versus George W. Bush on the second day of proceedings. The court denied STS his frequently emphasized request to have two witnesses give evidence in his defense. Those witnesses were myself and Cynthia McKinney. The trial came to an end just as Ms. McKinney arrived in Calgary from London. The US-based oil conglomerates active throughout Alberta form the core business constituency of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who represents a Calgary riding in Parliament.
The court accepted two documents as evidence for the defense. On is Gail Davidson’s widely disseminated legal opinion for Lawyer’s Against the War. STS and I studied this document closely in the days leading up to my friend being arrested for his arrest attempt. LAW’s legal opinion highlighted some of the evidence, statutes and treaties to brand Bush as a “credibly accused war criminal” that should not be allowed into Canada. Prior to Bush’s touching down in Calgary to address an audience of oil executives, Davidson’s documemtation was distributed widely to officials of the Harper government and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The other exhibit for the defense was my own paper that I originally presented at an invited academic venue at the University of Winnipeg. It has been published under a variety of titles on the Internet, including at Global Research.ca, 911 Blogger.com, 9/11 Truth.org and Voltairenet in both French and English. My initial title for it is “Bush League Justice: Should George W. Bush Be Arrested in Calgary Alberta and Tried for International Crimes.”
Delong will deliver his ruling on June 7. The case for the prosecution both revealed and obscured much about the new police strategies being employed throughout North America to monitor, manage, divide and spin doctor demonstrators seeking to call attention to their political dissent. In my opinion the Crown’s chief agent of prosecution, Tracy Davis, acted more as an advocate and defender of the police rather than as a representative of the Canadian people through Her Majesty as she is required to do according the constitutional tradition of the British Commonwealth.
Anthony J. Hall
Professor of GlobalizationStudies
University of Lethbridge
10 Marc, 2010
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(5) CALGARY SUN, CITIZEN’S ARREST OF GEORGE W. BUSH JUSTIFIED, COURT HEARS
http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2010/03/08/13159991.html
Citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush justified, court hears
By KEVIN MARTIN, Calgary Sun
Last Updated: March 8, 2010 6:06pm
Political activist John Boncore was entitled to try to arrest former U.S. president George W. Bush for war crimes, his lawyer told a Calgary court Monday.
Defence counsel Charles Davison said his client’s attempts at breaching a police barrier to gain access to Bush were justified.
Boncore is charged with obstructing a peace officer for repeatedly trying to get past security and into the Telus Convention Centre last March 17.
“Mr. Boncore had reasonable grounds to attempt to do what he said to the police he wanted to do,” Davison told provincial court Judge Manfred Delong.
“And that was to carry out a citizen’s arrest of George Bush,” the lawyer said.
Davison said he will present evidence, including a documentary entitled Taxi to the Dark Side, which details the torture and murder of an innocent Afghan cabbie, to support Boncore’s claim.
Davison said a group called Lawyers Against the War, had urged the RCMP to arrest Bush for crimes against humanity if he stepped on Canadian soil.
That group asserted Bush was “inadmissible to Canada” as a suspected war criminal and said the former U.S. president should not be allowed into our country.
If he was deemed a suspected war criminal Bush would be disentitled to enter Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and would be breaking the law if he came here, Davison said.
As a result, Boncore was entitled to make a citizen’s arrest since a crime was being committed.
But Crown prosecutor Tracy Davis said citizen’s arrests can only be carried out by a person witnessing a crime taking place.
“The accused was never entitled to effect an arrest of Mr. Bush,” Davis said.
In evidence, Sgt. Andy Comber said Boncore’s attempts to breach a police barricade outside the Telus Convention Centre was causing a large group of protesters to get angry at police.
“If he had breached that line I have no doubt other people would have follow him and eight policemen are not going to be able to hold 400 people back,” Comber told Davis.
“The crowd was quite agitated at that point,” he said.
Boncore’s trial, expected to last four days, continues on Tuesday.
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(6) GLOBAL RESEARCH’S NEWS REPORT ON SPLITTING THE SKY’S TRIAL
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18005
Global Research, March 8, 2010
Citizen’s Arrest of Alleged War Criminal George W. Bush in Canada
SPS versus “W” in Court Hearings in Calgary
by Carol Brouillet
Splitting the Sky, indigenous activist, seized by security forces in Canada last year when he attempted to make a citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush will have his day in court on Monday, March 8th. According to Professor Anthony J. Hall, this case will demonstrate whether Canada is ruled by law or fear and highlight the need for new principles, the Calgary Principles to amend the victor’s justice of the Nuremberg Principles, in light of the new impunities for high level crimes against humanity and the Earth in this era, and the need to protect and honor civil resistance to those high crimes.
Dacajaweiah, John Boncore, or Splitting the Sky, is not a man of few words. If you read his hefty 653-page autobiography, it is very clear that he has lived an extraordinary life and has survived more than his share of violence, to find deep within himself a well of energy and spirit enabling him to not only endure hardships, but to serve his people and the land in the timeless struggle against oppression and tyranny. From the Attica Rebellion to Gustafen Lake to Calgary in 2009, when he attempted a citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush, “Dac” has consciously taken a leadership role to politically challenge the powerful forces that dominate the North American continent. Brutally arrested for his action, he earned his “day in court” to voice not only his defense, but “to highlight the hypocrisy and criminality of the Canadian government for allowing Bush into Canada, and to firmly establish the legal defense of ‘civil resistance’, the duty of citizens to act when our governments and their agents are derelict in their duty. This will be very useful in the future to rein these criminals in.”
Prior to Bush’s visit, the Canadian group Lawyers Against the War asked Canadian officials to bar entry or try Bush for his suspected crimes since Canadian Law prohibits “people suspected of any involvement in torture or other war crimes and crimes against humanity from entering Canada for any period and for any purpose. The most recent report of the War Crimes Program affirms the necessity of barring war crimes suspects from Canada: ‘The most effective way to deny safe haven to people involved or complicit in war crimes or crimes against humanity is to prevent them from coming to Canada.’”
Lawyers Against the War and protestors implored the government to do their duty and arrest Bush. “Dac” was carrying papers detailing the evidence against George W. Bush, which he had planned to serve him with on behalf of the victims and the people of the world, and he raised his hands to show that he was “non-violent.” Dac was then thrown down, stomped on, kicked, handcuffed and led off to be brutalized in a Calgary jail.
Monday, March 8, 2010, he will have his opportunity to put forward his case and present evidence, with support, testimony and affidavits on his behalf from respected scholars, including David Ray Griffin, Peter Dale Scott, and Michel Chossudovsky, as well as from former US Congresswoman, outspoken human rights advocate, and former Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney. Professor Anthony J. Hall, author of The American Empire and the Fourth World and founding coordinator of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge, stated last December:
“Splitting the Sky’s action in Calgary highlights the abject failure of law enforcement agencies to do their job. It highlights the unwillingness of police and those who direct them to apply the law equitably and independently…
“As the Nuremberg principles make clear, the implicated law enforcement officers cannot claim in their defense that they were merely following orders in deciding to arrest Splitting the Sky rather than George W. Bush.
“I propose that the trial of Splitting the Sky presents a platform for the elaboration of a new set of juridical rules and protocols to be known as The Calgary Principles.
“It has been six decades since the UN general assembly agreed to a succinct refinement of the principles that emerged from the trial of some of the top Nazis, as well as their juridical, medical, and industrialist accomplices. During those decades, there has been an intensification of the culture of impunity that immunizes those at the top of the hierarchy of wealth and power from any legal accountability for their crimes.
“Like the Tokyo trials of the defeated leadership of imperial Japan, the Nuremberg Trials were a classic example of victors’ justice.
“As long as the power politics of victors’ justice continues to protect the likes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the rule of law remains a fraud. Under present conditions, the rule of law is a sad hoax designed to disguise the role of law enforcement agencies as protectors of the ill-gotten wealth often stripped from the branches of humanity that Frantz Fanon once labeled ‘the wretched of the earth.’
“The elaboration of the Calgary Principles will have to entail the quest for new language and juridical concepts to capture the full extent and complexity of international crime in the twenty-first century…
“Consider, for instance, the nature of the crime that takes place when whole populations are sentenced to endless futures of disproportionately high rates of genetic deformity through the saturation of their mother lands with depleted uranium. Consider the nature of a crime that would see a drug company covertly introduce a new disease strain in order to market a prepared antidote of vaccine to cure the disease it had disseminated.
“What names, what prohibitions, and what punishments do we need to respond to and discourage crimes that infect populations, deform populations, and even destroy whole ecosystems, making the renewal of all kinds of life, including human life, impossible to sustain?
“Hence it can be said that these days the most important agencies of the military-industrial complex and the national security state are the media conglomerates. These agencies of propaganda for an aggressive war bombard us on a daily basis with mental missiles of psychological warfare.
“The constant barrage of messages we receive that peace is to be found in war, that freedom is to be found in slavery, that wealth is to be found in indebtedness, and that truth is to be found in lies, is pulling humanity away from our fragile inheritance of reason, rationality, and enlightened discourse on the real menaces we face…”
Splitting the Sky’s action mirrors the actions of countless people in countless demonstrations that are taking place across the world where lives, land, forests, lakes, jobs, homes, species, and communities are threatened by powerful forces, making decisions in luxury and comfort, protected by men with guns from citizens trying to make their voices heard to protect that which they love and care deeply about. The trial will illustrate whether or not Canada is ruled by laws or by fear. Whatever happens, the struggle for truth, justice, and peace will continue.
For Anthony J. Hall’s entire article and speech, see http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16377 .
More details about Splitting the Sky are posted at http://www.splittingthesky.net/
Splitting the Sky and Anthony J. Hall will be on the new weekly radio show, Community Currency, hosted by local activist, Carol Brouillet Thursday, March 11, 2010, 2 pm – 3 pm PST, on the Progressive Radio Network (http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com)
http://dailycensored.com/2010/03/07/the-tr…
Carol Brouillet is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Carol Brouillet
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(7) JAN 19, 2010. LAW PROFESSOR FRANCIS BOYLE FROM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FILED REQUEST WITH INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC – THE HAGUE) FOR ARREST OF BUSH AND HIS COMPANIONS.
http://www.redress.cc/global/redress20100206
Bush to The Hague
International Criminal Court complaint filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales
Request for international arrest warrants
6 February 2010
A leading US professor of law has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court prosecutor against former US President George W. Bush and a number of his senior lieutenants alleging crimes against humanity for their policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” and requesting that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants against Mr Bush and his co-accused.
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, USA, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.
“Extraordinary rendition” is a euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitutes crimes against humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of actions considered as crimes under the ICC statute within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes under Rome Statute Article 12(2)(a) that affords the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute for ICC statutory crimes committed in ICC member states.
The complaint requests:
- That the ICC prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and
- That the ICC Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [ICC] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute Article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the highest level officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up complaint with the ICC if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition, which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
The complaint concludes with a request that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants for the Accused from the ICC in accordance with Rome Statute articles 58(1)(a), 58(1)(b)(i), 58(1)(b)(ii), and 58(1)(b)(iii).
Please contacting the ICC prosecutor by letter, fax or email – contact details below – to demonstrate your support for this complaint.
The Honourable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
A copy of the submission to the ICC prosecutor is below and is also available here.
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(8) NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO ARREST, I DON’T HAVE JURISDICTION. YES, YOU HAVE JURISDICTION, THE LAW OF COMPLEMENTARITY.
Excerpt from an earlier email:
Persons responsible for arresting or prosecuting George Bush when he comes to Canada Oct 20 – 22 say “not my responsibility. I don’t have jurisdiction. It’s International Law (or whatever)”. . . .
These officials in Canada DO have jurisdiction and responsibility for the arrest and prosecution of George W Bush under the Principle in International Law called Complementarity. The explanation of the Principle is simple. Please spread it around, especially to people in the justice system, including the police. Thanks. /Sandra
COMPLEMENTARITY
Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
From his book, “Intent for a Nation” (2007)
Page 111:
“Countries that ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court take on certain obligations. Prominent among these is the obligation to investigate and prosecute, under their domestic criminal laws, any individual located on their territory who is accused of any crime prohibited by the statute. This is because the International Criminal Court operates on the basis of a principle called “complementarity,” whereby most prosecutions are supposed to take place in domestic courts. The International Criminal Court steps in only when it deems that the relevant domestic court is unable or unwilling to fulfill that role, or when the UN Security Council refers a situation directly to it.
In 2000, the Canadian Parliament adopted legislation implementing the Rome Statute into Canadian law. The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act provides Canadian domestic courts with jurisdiction over a wide range of international crimes, regardless of the nationality of the alleged perpetrator or the location where he or she allegedly committed the crime. The act also goes further than the Rome Statute by providing jurisdiction retroactively over crimes.”
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(9) BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS
(Email sent Oct 8, 2009)
SUBJECT: Bush visit to Canada: Letters to RCMP, Police & Attorney General
An interesting update, item 15 in the attached letter to the RCMP:
“LAW & ORDER” TV PROGRAMME MAKES CASE FOR PROSECUTION OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION TORTURERS, OCTOBER 2, 2009
I almost feel guilty putting my name to the attached two letters because they are a collaborative creation.
But never mind – please feel free to cut, copy and paste to send your own letter to members of the justice system.
“Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.” Gandhi
The attachments are related to the Bush visit (Oct 20-21-22 Edmonton-Saskatoon-Montreal):
(1) Letter to the Attorney General of Canada (prosecution)
(2) Letter to RCMP F Division (Sask) Commander (arrest).
I included a copy of the letter to the RCMP in the letter to the AGC.
The list below of the items addressed is in the letter to the RCMP.
The first item, SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RULE OF LAW, is to me the most important part. We are in big trouble if the laws do not apply to those who govern.
I think we can and will and must win this one. A mass of informed people will do it – please forward this to others.
Cheers,
/Sandra
CONTENTS OF THE LETTER TO THE RCMP: See posting for Oct 8, 2009
