statism watch

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention can be found here… it incentivizes setting notable sites aside and off-limits to development via soft power and voluntary measures, that is by providing political pressure from the member community as well as short term loans from a fund to offset any costs of upkeep a member state may not be able to absorb. One wonders, however, why Canada needs to be a signatory to another level of international legislation when we once seemed capable of designating our own national parklands. Must the UN be involved in this as well?

Update (2009/06/17): It passed – unanimously, and the small businesses that make their living by outfitting game hunters in the park are to be kicked out. Of course, the large mining interests get to stay. Now, which of these businesses is more likely to have an impact on the watershed and the political clout to file for variations in the future to expand their operations now that this land has been conveniently set aside? Let’s not forget that Jim Prentice was the Minister of Industry prior to being shuffled to the Environment portfolio. That should raise a red flag for even the most credulous green.

Flashback: 40,000 sq km to be signed over to UNESCO | Canada expanding parkland at ‘extraordinary’ pace | Ontario places vast boreal area under protection, 22% of province off limits to development | Manitoba’s boreal forest touted for UNESCO status

CBC News
June 9, 2009

Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories would grow to six times its current size under a bill tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice tabled legislation calling for the park reserve’s boundaries to be expanded to encompass 30,000 square kilometres of land from the current 4,765 square kilometres.

Officials say the enlarged park will be slightly smaller than Vancouver Island, making Nahanni the third-largest national park in Canada. At 44,807 square kilometres, Wood Buffalo National Park, which straddles the N.W.T.-Alberta border, is the country’s largest national park.

Prentice, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, says the expansion will cover much of the South Nahanni River watershed and 91 per cent of the Greater Nahanni Ecosystem.

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Aren’t kickbacks and no-bid contracts standard procurement procedure these days?

Flashback: Personal ties exposed in eHealth’s untendered contracts | Ontario eHealth approved 4.8 million in no-bid contracts | Airbus funds likely source of Schreiber’s ‘Britan’ account: witness | Former Justice Minister Accused in Suit of Accepting Kickbacks | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | Conflict questions raised over Flaherty’s budget panel | Mulroney confidant knew about Airbus commissions: CBC News investigation | Author wins award for work identifying categories of state corruption | Was Couillard used to push leasing bid? | Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics | Political Intrigue in Merck’s Push for Mandatory HPV Vaccinations

CBC News
June 9, 2009

The Defence Department has been forced to reconsider its requirements for choosing new search-and-rescue planes for the Canadian military amid accusations the process was rigged, CBC News has learned.

The department started searching for new aircraft to replace its aging fleet in 2002. Its requirements were so stringent that only one aircraft in the world — the C-27J by Italy’s Alenia — could meet them, sources told the CBC.

That automatically excluded other credible competitors, they said.

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If these cases are indeed swine flu, then the question to be asked is – why, so far, has it hit native Americans and Mexicans so hard, but not people of European descent (who basically get the sniffles)? Is it due to the fact they’re both descended from the peoples who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago to populate this continent? Do other peoples have some sort of built in resistance for genetic reasons? And if this strain was created in a lab as some experts have suggested, what does that tell us? For what it’s worth, the by now infamous PNAC document, authored by Cheney and his cronies, opined that: “advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.” All this journal can say is – this had better not be some kind of test. In either case, it’s the First Nations and Inuit that are bearing the brunt of this highly irregular virus.

Flashback: Swine flu ‘getting closer’ to pandemic level, WHO official says | France Considers Mandatory Flu Vaccinations | Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | Illinois-based Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu outbreak in Mexico | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe

CBC News
June 9, 2009

‘Cold baths and tylenol’ recommended treatment at reservation nursing station

Flu-like illnesses continue to hit hard in Manitoba’s First Nations communities, especially St. Theresa Point, where a two-month-old flown to Winnipeg Monday night became 27th medical evacuee from the community.

Two people from the community, located about 500 kilometres from Winnipeg, have been confirmed to have swine flu and two others are in critical condition, including a woman who was pregnant but has since miscarried.

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Does this remind you of anything? Wake up! We do not need this kind of eugenics nonsense to sweep North America again. Boycott any insurance company asking these questions or demanding genetic testing. Give them a very hard time, and lobby them to drop these provisions. The market has to reject this for resistance to be effective. And to the scumbag insurance companies: you know how to do actuarial risk assessments across populations without this information. Your business is with aggregate risk, not personal risk. Charge appropriately, and get your damn hands off of our DNA. (Incidentally, this is an excellent argument against centralized electronic health records in a public health system.) And to those that might arrogantly protest why they should pay fractionally more to cover someone else’s insurance in the herd, well try thinking about it for a second: how much of your privacy are you willing to give up for a few extra bucks in your pocket? There are so many new regulations, laws, and prohibitions being written now to micromanage your life that you, too, will at some point have something to hide – and by then it will be too late.

Flashback: US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims |  UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Joseph Hall, Toronto Star
June 9, 2009

For the first time, a Canadian study has shown widespread discrimination based solely on perceived genetic risks – a fear that has grown in tandem with the expanding ability to scour our DNA for inherited diseases.

The study, which appears Wednesday in the prestigious British Medical Journal, points to the need for Canada to enact laws protecting people’s right to access affordable insurance despite their genetic susceptibilities to different diseases, its lead author says.

In particular, the University of British Columbia study shows that insurance companies and others routinely discriminate against people with a family history of Huntington’s disease – a brain-wasting ailment that is passed on through a single genetic mutation.

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Yet another entry in the burgeoning ‘cops gone wild’ file. Officer Jackboot here probably thought the grandmother was a domestic terrorist for daring to talk back.

Flashback: Dziekanski’s ‘combative behaviour’ justified Taser jolt: Mountie | Cops Taser Drowned Dad’s Distraught Son | US Cops Tase 54 Year Old Woman For Sitting In Wrong Seat At Football Game | Family sues police claiming Taser raid on autistic son in own bedroom | Tasering of mom with baby ‘necessary’ in order to take child, police say | Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says | RCMP Taser Confused, Hospitalized 82 Year Old

David Edwards, Rawstory.com
June 9, 2009

Fox News has obtained police dashboard video of the tasering of a 72 year old great grandmother in Travis County, TX.

The police claim that after Kathryn Winkfein was stopped for driving 15 miles over the speed limit in a construction zone, she disobeyed an order to sign the speeding ticker, used profane language, and became “violent.” They say the officer who tasered her and took her to be booked for resisting arrest was completely justified.

However, Winkfein says that’s a lie, and the video appears to back her up.

It shows Constable Richard McCain screaming, “Get over here now!” Winkfein replies, “Give [the ticket] to me and I’ll sign it.” Instead, the officer reaches out and pushes her, and she starts complaining, “Oh, you’re going to shove me? You’re going to shove a seventy-two year old woman?”

McCain then tasers her. As Winkfein lies on the ground screaming, he orders, “Now put your hands behind your back. Put your hands behind your back or you’re going to be tasered again.”

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Arrrrr! This story should perhaps be not regarded so much as an indicator o’ great things to come from thar lone freebooter adrift ‘mongst the EU’s Imperial armada, as ’tis a demonstration of the depths of disgust Swedes have for the authoritarian provisions enacted by their scurvy state this year past. The Pirate Bay trial and this result should be viewed in the context of the mass online surveillance of all communications crossing the Swedish border – and internet traffic almost always crosses borders – that was decreed last June. Presumably, this be considered a measured response to the online activities o’ lads downloading thar music, or imaginary terrorists, or some such. A growing bloc o’ Swedish voters do beg to differ, and as similar wiretappin’ laws be revealed in place or in the works fer other states we might have otherwise considered ‘liberal democracies’ – including Canada, Australia, the USA, France, the UK – the Swedes have proven themselves worthies in the struggle against encroaching global surveillance.

Flashback: Stockholm Court: Pirate Bay Judge ‘Unbiased’ | Pirate Bay lawyer calls for retrial after judge confirms ties to copyright groups | Jail terms for Pirate Bay founders, appeal in works | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Opposition to proposed Swedish surveillance law mounts | Sweden sets sights on new ‘catch and release’ wiretap law

CBC News
June 9, 2009

Sweden’s Pirate Party, riding a wave of discontent among voters who want a more unregulated internet, has won a seat in the European Parliament, according to early results from Sunday.

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 per cent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, good for at least one of the 18 seats Sweden holds in the 785-seat European Parliament.

The party wants to reduce government surveillance, deregulate copyright and abolish the patent system.

The party gained only 0.63 per cent of the votes in Swedish parliamentary elections in 2006, the year the party was founded.

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Oh, come on. There’s no plan for a New World Order or global ‘governance’. They’re not in Montreal. It doesn’t exist. You’re delusional, Sam Labrier. There are no imaginary powerbrokers, there is no imaginary conference by that name, because if you don’t see it on television, it’s not true. But oddly you’re in good company, since Gordon Brown, Robert Zoellick, Henri Kissinger, Baron Rothschild, EC President Jose Manuel Barroso, writers in Haar’etz, Russia Today, The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Financial Times, the President of Turkey, Diplomats, economics firms, and major foundations, to name a few, have spoken of it. And that’s just in the past few years. Let’s not even get into the authors and politicians and despots of renown from the past that have lined up behind this idea of a micromanaged world hive. All insane. But there’s nothing to see here – so run along now, little moonbat, don’t protest the imaginary conference, don’t learn anything about history or politics (that’s like, so uncool), get home and watch TV, pay your taxes, support the war, take your Prozac, and leave this to your betters.

Flashback: Flaherty appoints business leaders to economic advisory council | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | Bilderberg-connected Desmarais dynasty thinktank supports exporting Canada’s water | Montreal, June 9 to 12, 2008 – Henri Kissinger to followup Bilderberg Conference with keynote address at International Economic Forum of the Americas | Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting

Sam Labrier, Infowars.com
June 9, 2009

MONTREAL — Today marked the first day of the four-day Conference of Montreal, this year entitled “Adapting to a New World Order.” Present at the conference is a who’s who of international finance and politics, including the heads of the World Bank and the IMF, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and a large assortment of other Bilderberg and NWO elitists. Presiding over the whole affair is none other than Paul Desmarais Jr., a member of Montreal’s leading Bilderberg family. This is the fifteenth anniversary of the Conference of Montreal. The conference is taking place at the Bonaventure Hilton in downtown Montreal until Thursday.

The whole place was under a heavy police lockdown, and getting footage from inside was next to impossible without proper media credentials. Nonetheless we were able to get information from media sources inside about what is being discussed.

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Now where oh where could it have all possibly been shipped to? Did it leave in Rick Mercer’s pockets? Oh, it’s a big mystery…

Flashback: Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold | Has the Mint’s gold vanished? | Bank crisis spawns new kind of gold rush | Gold Tops $1,000, First Time Since March as Recession Deepens | Manipulation Of Gold And Silver Prices Further Exposed | Analysts Predict Hyper-Inflation To Push Gold To $2000, Oil to $300 | Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades

Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star
June 9, 2009

Canada’s money-makers can’t find tens of millions in precious metals that are shown on the books

OTTAWA – The mint’s missing stock of precious metals is worth tens of millions of dollars, the Star has learned.

While officials at the Royal Canadian Mint have not publicly released a value, insiders have confirmed that auditors are trying to track precious metals, believed to be gold, worth in the “double digits” of millions.

At today’s prices, $10 million worth of gold would weigh more than 250 kilograms.

An external audit, launched in early March, is trying to reconcile the mint’s records with the physical stocks of gold, silver, platinum and palladium, the four precious metals used by the Crown corporation in its production of coins and collector sets.

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These are the wages of legal tender laws – which make it illegal to challenge the international banking establishment’s (inclusive of the IMF, BIS, World Bank, and others) monopoly on the creation of currency. This monopoly allows enormous control of the economy by forcing fiat money on markets. (See also Gresham’s Law). Note how poorly fiat money has been doing in protecting your purchasing power. Congressman Ron Paul, himself an unapologetic backer of hard currency, has advocated opening the currency market to competition as one measure to progress towards a more rational economic system. Finally, there’s one other thing not mentioned in the article below… all of the criminal activity that took advantage of Mr. Jackson’s currency system and for which he is now ostensibly paying the price (despite his full cooperation with authorities), would not have been possible without fiat cash and credit cards. And now there’s a big push on for digital money based on fiat credit. That’s the coming counterfeit system. Savour the irony, FINTRAC.

Flashback: Digital Money Forum Pushes For Electronic Currency | Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades

Kim Zetter, Wired.com
June 9, 2009

MELBOURNE, Florida — In a sparsely decorated office suite two floors above a neighborhood of strip malls and car dealerships, former oncologist Douglas Jackson is struggling to resuscitate a dying dream.

Jackson, 51, is the maverick founder of E-Gold, the first-of-its-kind digital currency that was once used by millions of people in more than a hundred countries. Today the currency is barely alive.

Stacks of cardboard evidence boxes in the office, marked “U.S. Secret Service,” help explain why, as does the pager-sized black box strapped to Jackson’s ankle: a tracking device that tells his probation officer whenever he leaves or enters his home.

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All your base are belong to us.

Flashback: China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits

Ben Blanchard, Alan Wheatley, Reuters
June 9, 2009

BEIJING – China, the world’s largest holder of official foreign exchange reserves, has no intention of abandoning the U.S. dollar, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a news briefing on President Hu Jintao’s forthcoming trip to Russia, where he will attend an inaugural summit of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — in Yekaterinburg on June 16.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and others have said the meeting would discuss the search for alternatives to the dollar as the world’s principal reserve currency.

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