Privacy and freedom under siege. Political, market and technological forces are making the global surveillance society a reality. Like our deteriorating environment, it isn't going to be pretty.
In her much-acclaimed book, The End of America, Naomi Wolf describes a “fascist shift” along tried and true lines, including manufacturing external threats, arbitrary search, seizure and detention, secret prisons and torture, surveillance of ordinary citizens, infiltration of citizens’ groups, targeting and labeling dissenters as traitors, restricting the press and, cutting across all of the foregoing, subverting the rule of law. Ms. Wolf’s new book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, is a call for citizen action to restore the freedoms and rights we’ve lost.
Give Me Liberty is more of a detailed procedures manual than a handbook, but both descriptors shortchange this book. Its five-page table of contents outlines a well-structured case, beginning with discussions of “fake” patriotism and democracy and seven core American values that are being subverted; and closing with a comprehensive and creative user’s guide for individuals and groups who want them back.
Ms. Wolf makes frequent reference to the American constitution and Bill of Rights, whose designers wished above all to protect Americans from their own government. She weaves together citizen duties to exercise their free speech and to protest against injustice and oppression. She repeatedly reminds us that government by and for the people was always intended, that no (wo)man is above the law and that America established no god. She blasts America’s aggressive wars overseas, including with a telling Robert Kennedy quote: “Over the years an understanding of what America really stands for is going to count far more than missiles, aircraft carriers and supersonic bombers.”
After a few sections, the set-up is clear: Here’s what our founders intended about freedom of speech or religion or the right to privacy. Here’s what our greatest leaders have said about them over the centuries. Here’s what we’ve got today. It is eerie how many of our rights and freedoms have been rolled back so excessively; and scary how we have come to accept and even expect them.
Fearsome enemies and perpetual wars on terror, crime and drugs will do that to a society. Ms. Wolf is persuasive in exposing citizens’ feelings of powerlessness and inaction as un-American activities. Her user’s guide provides the ideas and civic tools to take this country back.
Ms. Wolf's guide is within the system. Her call for peaceful (but disruptive) street protests is about as radical as she gets. She runs the gamut of ways individuals and organizations can make a difference. It isn’t easy getting heard in the corporate media? Here’s how. Yes, police and security agencies make it hard to publicly protest these days, but there are ways. Petitioning in the Internet age. Joining or starting movements. Changing the laws. Making peace and democratic reforms.
Each section ends with a list of “additional resources.” The book itself ends with a wish list of other reforms for the future.
The fight for freedom either never ends, or things are just that bad.
There are no doubt readers of this review who will shake their heads, remaining convinced that there’s nothing to worry about, it's always been this way or nothing will ever change. A whole lot of us are tuned out or simply don’t care.
To which Ms. Wolf would reply: It’s your duty to care, as American patriots and for your kids. Listen to Ben, who noted so famously over 200 years ago, that those who would (sacrifice) liberty for security deserve neither.
It’s hard being a patriot dissenter these days. Governments and corporations are indeed having their way with us. But, as Ms. Wolf concludes, we’ve got more votes. We have the power.
I commend this book. Inexpensive, too.
Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, by Naomi Wolf, Simon and Schuster, 376 pages, Paperback, $13.95 ($16 Cdn and cheaper over the Internet. A great Xmas gift)
_______ Richard Sharp
About author
Richard Sharp has been a privacy and human rights manager, consultant and advocate for three decades.
Is Stephane Dion Getting the “Joe Clark Treatment?”
By Richard Sharp
The Conservatives have vilified Stephane Dion’s leadership for over a year now, everything from repeated and vile attack ads to ongoing, talking point slurs from the chosen few who are allowed to speak to the media.Most pundits in the mainstream media have succumbed to this smear job, even many of Canada’s most seasoned political commentators.
Not so, I’m certain their response.Mr. Dion earned our displeasure.But let’s look at the facts.
Sure, the Liberals lost Outremont and may lose another seat on March 17, but by-elections are politically meaningless when the balance of power is not at stake.
In fact, despite negative press and the huge disadvantage of being in opposition and competition for centre-left votes from the NDP, the Green party and the Bloc, Mr. Dion’s Liberals have hung tough with the Conservatives in the polls to this day.Nanos Research, consistently the most accurate political pollster in Canada, has the Liberals in a slight lead!
Yes, Mr. Dion’s English is imperfect and there are about 20 words his speechwriters should never use. But otherwise his English is quite decent.
The media also criticizes Mr. Dion for not bringing down the Harper government.Come on. Four of five Canadians don’t want another election.If the Liberals had caused one last fall based on an innocuous throne speech of all things, or relatively minor bills, the electorate would not have been kind.
Many pundits predicted an election over Afghanistan and/or the recent federal budget.Instead, Mr. Dion has been widely praised for brokering a deal with the Tories concerning the (doomed) war mission that nudges us towards more peacekeeping and reconstruction.The Liberals also quite wisely refused to force an election over Mr. Harper’s do-nothing budget.
So, the same pundits with egg all over their face now accuse Mr. Dion of “flip-flopping” and of being a “wimp.”Mr. Dion is not getting the “Joe Clark” treatment quite yet, but it’s surely gotten out of hand.The “wolf pack mentality” has set in.
Here is why the mainstream media have got it wrong:
1.Restoration of Trust and Unity within the Liberal Party:
Mr. Dion won the Liberal leadership race fair and square, marked by civility and open debate with many excellent candidates. He has since overcome the fractious Martin-Chretien years, drawing all of his former opponents to his team. He has restored trust and unity within his party, which is surely a remarkable feat and leadership goal number one.
2.The Liberals have Better Policies
Leaders are also only as good as the direction they’re heading. Mr. Dion has it all over Mr. Harper on this count too. Mr. Harper’s singular purpose is to emasculate the federal government except for defence and security, while most Canadians favour the Liberal vision of Canada – an activist government on a whole slew of policy issues, including Afghanistan, the environment, Aboriginal and women’s rights, childcare, fighting poverty, progressive taxation and fair trade.
Mr. Harper’s enthusiastic support for all things American is another clear distinction in Mr. Dion’s favour.No reasonable person still supports the Bush administration’s disastrous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and on terror generally, further “deep integration” with a sinking ship and so on.With the political demise of Mssrs. Blair and Howard, Mr. Harper is arguably the last Bush poodle.
3.The Liberals Have a Better Team
Good leaders surround themselves with competent people and empower and support their team. Most Canadians surely prefer Michael Ignatief, Bob Rae, Ralph Goodale and the other Liberals over Mr. Harper’s pit bulls and poodles. The Liberals are free to speak while the Tories, even Ministers, have been muzzled, so much so it seems his PR people are running the country!
4.Mr. Dion’s Leadership Style is in fact Superior
Leaders vary from autocratic to democratic and it is clear to which campMr. Harper belongs.He’s an arrogant, dismissive and secretive control freak who doesn’t trust his own team. He has centralized power in his office to ridiculous degrees and, when criticized, he resorts to smear tactics and name-calling.
Mr. Harper’s astounding censorship of the federal bureaucracy is so unbelievable that one wonders what all those communications people are doing these days.I suspect mostly preparing talking points for Ministers in advance of forced disclosures of the embarrassing kind under the Access to Information Act.
Wrong on critical policy issues and unwilling to admit mistakes. Obsessed with control and secrecy. Disrespectful of political opponents and even his own team. Is that leadership or is it dictatorship?
In contrast, Mr. Dion is a proven healer with an empowered team and has a vision most Canadians prefer.When it comes to the human side of leadership, building consensus based on right vs. wrong and making choices to help the disadvantaged the most, Mr. Dion is the clear winner.
5.Women and Ontario Will Vote Liberal, No Matter the Media
Finally, when push comes to shove, it is a given that the 52% of the electorate who happen to be women prefer Mr. Dion over Mr. Harper by a wide margin.The Liberals’ superior position on issues of war and peace, human rights and child care will keep that margin wide into the foreseeable future.Women don’t vote for bullies.
For someone who is widely reported as a cunning tactician, Mr. Harper has been unbelievably stupid in his treatment of Ontario (the Maritimes, etc.).Coming up with legislation that shortchanges Ontario by fully ten federal ridings is a gift to the Liberals whenever the next election.And allowing the Finance minister, Jim Flaherty, to run off at the mouth trashing Ontario’s business environment is the height of political folly.
So, Mr. Dion and the Liberals bide their time.The Conservatives are embroiled in an increasing number of scandals that are showing their true colours.The economy is heading south but, because they’ve squandered the budget surplus on useless measures such as the GST cuts and war, the room to take action is limited.
The time for an election is growing on the simple grounds that the Harper government keeps shooting itself in the foot.They’ve not many toes left.
Richard Sharp is long-time advocate for peace and privacy, and a life-long “Dippe.r”He likes Jack Layton but, right now, the only real choice is between the Liberals and Conservatives.
The whole idea of free market capitalism is that it serves consumers best, right? When governments or state enterprises get involved, they screw it up, right? I have this uneasy feeling that the answer is, “Not quite so;” that, as citizens, consumers and employees, we have come to expect and accept a system that isn’t what it’s trumped up to be.
China is communist but is has achieved over 10% growth for about fifteen years, which no other country has achieved ever! State planning can work! I've always believed that, if Walmart had been running the Soviet Union, that "Red Menace" would still be a going concern. (Not that it isn't still, with thousands of nukes pointed our way.)
Anyway, in our dream-world, corporations are models of efficiency. One way to be efficient is to outsource even core activities to poorly regulated, pro-business countries, to avoid paying decent wages and benefits to real employees. Dilbert, the greatest business guru of all time, instructs us that contractors are sub-human without families to care for. Even if they are, business is business.
But outsourcing work to customers has ushered in a whole new wave of almost limitless opportunity. It really took off a few decades ago, when gas was cheap and Exxon, Texaco and other poor oil companies were dumb enough to compete against each other, often on all four corners of expensive downtown intersections. They didn’t have a handle on how to fix markets and prices quite yet, so cost-cutting was the only way to keep executive pay at a decent level.
Ergo, let’s get customers to do our work for us! And so self-serve was invented and we’ve been pumping our own gas ever since.
The banks caught on fast with ATMs - a marketing tour de force, a rare triple whammy. They fired all the tellers, transferred the work to customers and then charged us for the privilege! It doesn’t get any better than that.
Now everyone is doing it. Grocery stores get us to check and bag our own. Airlines have these newfangled check-in machines. As if getting searched, sniffed and our toiletries and other dangerous contraband confiscated wasn't bad enough!
This “do it yourself” trickery has no limits, and is usually sold as a way for us to save money. IKEA is not bad at this but I think any product that takes a five year old more than ten minutes to put together or install should be banned.
I personally lost my way around the time of having to reset the clocks on VCRs after power outages. Have you bought a computer, a wireless device or a TV lately? Done all three and if I didn’t have kids, I’d be lost. Whatever happened to plug it in and turn it on?
A man’s home is his castle? Not anymore. Companies are planting bugs on our computers and tracking our activities. Banks, airlines, telcos and Internet service providers are snitching on us to the feds. I think Google is a CIA conspiracy! Well, not really, but I bet it and other communications and computer companies have some real "spooky" deals with Big Bro.' Stuff we can’t even imagine.
I love music but I can’t keep up with the technology. I’ve been through 78, 45 and 33 records, reel to reel, eight track and cassette tapes, MTV, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, etc. It’s the same music and I've been "upscaled" enough, thanks. Maybe the medium really is the message.
Don’t get me going about tobacco, alcohol or pharmaceutical companies. Their killer drugs are legal but not marijuana? Geesh. Has anyone done a cost-benefit analysis? It's total madness!
But there is one service that really takes the cake. I am of course referring to every organization’s favourite means of avoiding helping their customers: telephone reply systems. If you want this, press that. Ad infinitum, until one would have to be a math major and have the patience of Job to get to speak to a real person. If, as your drones tell me, my business is so important to you, answer the freakin' phone.
Let’s recap. As citizens and voters, we are nothings and governments are scurrying around deregulating the financial, energy and other markets, while racing to the global bottom concerning environmental, worker, consumer and other protections we once had. We get to vote every few years for Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum, who serve their corporate masters in between. If we get really exorcised about this quaintly anti-democratic reality, we can write our elected representatives or a newspaper, or join a movement that has little to no say.
As employees, we are treated like any other resource to be exploited. Check your privacy at the door and be happy with your pay. Productivity gains used to be shared with workers but our real incomes haven't gone up since 1980! Except for you know who. And the more a CEO screws up, the bigger the golden parachute to keep it a secret. Perfect.
An open letter to the Manley panel on Canada’s war mission in Afghanistan from a concerned citizen. Richard Sharp is a longtime advocate of peace and privacy.
Dear Mr. Manley and respected panelists:
1. Sirs and Madam, I have read that you are unabashedly pro-American, regardless of their folly, and that your mandate has been manipulated by the like-minded Harper government, whose pro-war position is well-known. However, I believe most Canadians prefer to trust that you will have the collective integrity to tell the whole truth about the deeply flawed Canadian military mission in Afghanistan.
2. America is the greatest military and economic empire the world has ever known, by far, and we are their best friends in many, many ways. But they have seriously lost their way in the world with their wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and “terrorism” generally. If you report in favour of peace, you can in fact help our friends get back on track. America’s century can still be, but only if it stops its bullying ways.
Canada’s international standing is at risk
3. There is a reason most Canadians want this mission to end, whether immediately or as scheduled in early 2009. There is no vital national interest to protect by waging war in an impoverished nation that did us no harm and has never, ever been successfully “pacified” by invaders. Quite the contrary.
4. This is about Canada’s place in the world. Are we a nation of peacekeepers or not? Will we support and even fight for the Americans no matter how illegal, genocidal, wasteful and unwinnable the war? Is this goodbye to our international reputation and added value in global diplomacy as an “honest broker?”
5. History is not kind to those who wage war without just cause and the verdict is already in on the Bush administration. It has committed the worst foreign policy blunders in American history, making the Vietnam War look like a piker. They had the sympathy of the world after 9/11. But they blew it.
6. Public opinion places the United States government at record lows, everywhere, especially in the Muslim world but also in Europe, South America and here at home. President Bush is the most reviled American president of all time by the most (Internet) informed public ever. Political leaders likened to Bush poodles have been falling like flies.
7. Notwithstanding the fear mongering, cheerleading, self-censorship and other complicities of the mainstream media and other neocon outlets in North America, the secret is out. The emperor has no clothes.
8. How can Canada possibly benefit by going down with this sinking ship? Better we cut our losses and give the Americans sound and friendly advice that they cut theirs. Because it’s going to get a lot worse and the madness has to stop.
These wars are illegal and unjust….
9. Those who argue, “Afghanistan is not Iraq” are most mistaken. It is only slightly less in violation of a whole slew of international laws, charters and conventions than the Iraq war. Take your pick: the sovereignty of nations, the legal concept of just wars, the use of horrendous weapons of mass destruction, the treatment of prisoners, the killing of civilians, the destruction of non-military targets and on and on.
10. Bush’s unnecessary wars have cost as many as a million lives, overwhelmingly civilian, and many millions more have been maimed for life. Tens of millions have been forced to flee their homes and countries. Those too poor to escape suffer ongoing devastation and extreme hardship. Whenever the wars end, “unexploded ordinance” and radioactive and chemical leftovers will kill and maim tens of thousands more for years to come. Mostly children
11. It is unbelievable that the Bush administration’s multi-trillion dollar “war on terror” started in Afghanistan, against possibly a few hundred Islamic fanatics living in caves, with possibly a few million dollars in the bank. The Taliban government was willing to negotiate handing over bin Laden. That the United States refused talks and invaded anyway constituted the highest of all war crimes. That Bush administration browbeating and bribes later achieved a modicum of UN support and NATO authorization will never erase this historical fact.
12. Both wars and military occupations are of long-suffering Muslim nations, thanks in no small part to a century or more of British, American and Soviet imperialism. Iraq was a true cradle of civilization and, despite a decade of genocidal UN sanctions based on American lies, it was easily the most progressive Muslim nation in terms of women’s rights, universal health care and education, affordable utilities and more. It has been bombed back to the Stone Age (based on more American lies). Oil production facilities and pipelines were protected, of course.
13. Afghanistan suffered a similar fate, but there was less infrastructure and fewer national treasures to blow up (and allow to be looted).
14. Afghanistan is also the source of most of the original prisoners kidnapped and then tortured at Guantanamo Bay and in other American gulags. Thousands and thousands have been held for up to six years without due process. Many are being held on the incredible word of secret, bribed informants whose allegations they aren’t allowed to know, let alone fairly contest.
15. The treatment of “enemy combatants” is a truly sordid mess and a lasting shame on us all. That both the Martin and Harper governments have allowed the Canadian child soldier, Omar Khadr, to be held for over five years is beyond belief. Is everybody who fights back when the Americans invade other countries a terrorist?
…. an attack on our rights and freedoms….
16. It appears we’re all potential terrorists now. Our security agencies have played on our false fears (of crime, terrorism, etc.) to grab more money, power and self-serving secrecy. Our hard-won rights and freedoms have taken a major hit. Without the slightest relationship to actual threat, we are getting herded, sniffed and searched at airports and borders. We are the targets of a dizzying array of new, often untried technologies to better identify us as we move about, to intercept once-private communications and to build secret files on us, involving a huge network of banks, airlines, telecommunications companies and other corporate snitches. Say hello to the global surveillance society.
17. Fearsome enemies, secret files, fingerprinting, random searches, constant surveillance and demands to show identification used to be the defining characteristics of totalitarian regimes. We might now expect it when we travel or come from certain countries, but also when we attend unthreatened events or buildings. And, increasingly, we have to check our privacy at the door when we go to work (or school), or even stay home and log on to the Internet or use any kind of phone.
18. History will not be kind to the United States regarding its so-called war on terror. George Bush as global spymaster, chief of police, chief magistrate, prison warden and executioner? Hillary Clinton for that matter? No thanks.
…. incredibly wasteful….
19. We are witness to the biggest, most one-sided orgy of military and “security” spending in history, including the cold war which (surprise) was also based on a grossly exaggerated (Soviet) threat. The American defence budget has skyrocketed to over half a trillion dollars a year, constituting 50% of global military expenditures. Our $18 billion places us 13th in the world, 6th within NATO and the Harper government’s spending spree on offensive weapons is just getting warmed up. He wants us to “punch above our weight” in the international arena. Emphasis on the punch.
20. The other brutal distortion in the global economy caused by America’s wars is the price of oil. Imagine if the American-inspired oil embargo against Iraq had been lifted back in the 1990’s, when the (lack of WMD) evidence was in. Not only would it have saved hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, the price of oil might still be under $40 a barrel and the huge transfer of money from all of us to totally undeserving OPEC countries and Big Oil could have been avoided. We in the West can mostly afford higher oil prices but they have devastated poorer nations.
21. The Americans don’t need our military help. What they want is our cover. Yet, for just a fraction of the money that continues to be wasted on war and transferred to oil profiteers, we could have saved and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of impoverished people in Africa, Asia and here at home, through improved access to water and sanitation, food, shelter, health care, micro credit and so many other caring and peaceful measures. How can we continue to condone this insanity?
…. and unwinnable
22. The last place any country wants to be is at war for a losing cause. But there isn’t the slightest chance that the United States and NATO can win in Afghanistan, in five or fifty years, with or without Canada. It has repelled all invaders for centuries.
23. We are not just fighting the Taliban or Al Qaeda, whomever they are. We are also fighting so-called warlords and drug lords, opium farmers, mercenaries and, most importantly, Afghanis whose only motivation is to fight foreign occupation.
24. As in Iraq, they are being joined by foreign jihadists and guerillas from other countries, increasingly drawn to what is quite rightly seen as an American and Western war against Islam and the Arab world. There are 1.5 billion Muslims and their hatred for us is growing. There is an unending supply of fighters willing to give up their lives to attack their occupiers/oppressors, anywhere. They will never go away and even so-called military experts are talking in terms of decades.
25. Isn’t it clear by now that Western wars of occupation don’t work anymore? That there will be increasing human bloodshed until we leave. And that the threat of terrorism at home will increase in tandem, no matter our clumsy attempts to build fortresses around our borders and watch and search everyone.
26. America’s war on terror has been a colossal, fraudulent failure, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but across the board. Such unnecessary death and destruction. Such a huge loss of human potential and resources. So many unwarranted rollbacks of our rights and freedoms. So many peaceful alternatives.
27. Attack human suffering, not us. That’s the only way to fight terrorism.
28. That’s why billions and billions of citizens the world over are so repulsed by the Bush administration. Too much armour. Not enough brains.
We have lost our way on national defence and security
29. There is a stark reason the United States and Canada are meeting stiff resistance from other NATO countries concerning their demands for more combat troops. These countries know they cannot kill every rebel or dissident, short of genocide. Many are asking what is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization doing in Afghanistan, anyway? Yes, an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all members but, to repeat, Afghanistan didn’t attack the United States and certainly poses no risk to NATO members.
30. The vast majority of Canadians support just wars, such as in self-defence, World War II and UN-authorized peacekeeping interventions to prevent genocide. Otherwise, “Thou shalt not kill.”
31. Who has attacked us lately? Wasn’t 1812 the last time? Who might attack us now? The answer is “Nobody,” and if you asked a London bookmaker of the odds against that, a million to one sounds about right. China or any other country couldn’t wage a conventional war against us. We’re too big, we have guns, it would cost too much and for what? Plus, we’re members of NATO and NORAD, meaning an attack against us is treated as an attack against our allies.
32. The obvious truth is, Canada really only goes to war in support of our allies. Europe and the United States, in particular, owe us big time. We entered both world wars in defence of freedom years before our American friends.
33. It’s all over for us in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States or, let’s say it, a nuclear attack by the United States. Our “sovereign space” would be the likely “battleground.” The only other national defence threat of note is a terrorist attack and our offensive military mission in Afghanistan is increasing that threat every day we’re there.
34. It is one thing to defend our allies when attacked but it is quite another to support their invasion and occupation of defenceless and destitute countries, in violation of just about any international law you want to name. Our Department of Defence needs a new name: Department of Offence.
35. It is one thing to catch foreign spies and dangerous subversives and quite another to spy on one’s own citizens in ways Orwell or Huxley could not imagine possible. How about Department of Surveillance?
Canada-US relations are important but….
36. We rightfully claim to be America’s best friends and, until this trumped-up war on terror began, we enjoyed the longest unguarded border in the world. We are best trading partners, on very pro-American terms. They practically own us!
37. But right now, the United States is a rogue state and this makes for a truly dangerous world. A likely Democratic victory a year from now may not change things much. Jimmy Carter was elected on a strong anti-war platform and it took all his might to reduce the military budget from $300 billion to $295 billion. The military-security-industrial complex is that powerful.
38. The best we can do is speak truth to power and try to persuade them to come to their senses about their wars and occupations, arms control, weapons in space and so on. And avoid getting snagged into any more wasteful military and security projects. We don’t need more frightful killing or surveillance technologies where the vendors get the profits and we get the tab.
…. there is only one rational and humane alternative
39. The situation today is clearly many times worse than the Vietnam War. Millions and millions of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis killed, maimed for life and forced to flee. Horrid “living” conditions far worse than before they were attacked and occupied. There is growing worldwide revulsion at the Bush administration and Canada desperately needs to step clear.
40. Our soldiers are being killed, we are wasting our money and, more importantly, our international reputation. The Taliban government was ruthless, but there were and remain much more genocidal regimes requiring international intervention, notably in Africa. Under the auspices of the United Nations, and in the name of peacekeeping, that’s where we should be.
41. Canada should therefore confirm that it will meet its NATO commitments but otherwise announce a halt to all offensive activities in Afghanistan, and the complete withdrawal of all offensive fighters and equipment by February, 2009.
42. Canada should immediately engage its NATO allies to re-examine our timid acquiescence to the American manipulation of its treaty and military mandate.
43. Canada should work with NATO, Muslim and other nations to present a credible peace plan to the UN, including: . the unilateral cessation of all offensive military activity by NATO and American forces . a truly UN-authorized peacekeeping force, mainly comprising Arab/Muslim forces, supported by neighbouring nations and with Canadian assistance, if requested . a truce, reasonable amnesty, national reconciliation and peace talks among all Afghan parties . leading to agreement on human rights, the distribution of spending and truly free elections.
44. Contrary to the tired mantras of our failed leaders, talking with the enemy is good! Canada used to excel at handling ceasefires, keeping the parties at bay but dialogue going, amnesty issues, exchanges, etc. Because we were trusted.
45. Canada should agree to pay a fair share of the costs which, in any case, would be a fraction of current military spending. This includes an offer to negotiate reparations to Afghanis who, through no fault of their own, have suffered so much for so long.
46. Last time I looked, in the case of Canada alone, 90% of spending was going to military operations and only 10% to aid. This ratio will be a useful tool in measuring Canada’s progress towards peace.
47. Canada should also review a litany of Canadian military arrangements with the Americans that amount to blatant and also secret support of their Iraq war. Iraq didn’t attack us either and we should have no part of it.
48. In the interests of accountability, General Hillier must go. He pushed for this war to play with the big boys and, in his own haunting words, to “kill scumbags.” He put our soldiers in harm’s way for nothing. He is not fit to lead.
49. Finally, we have to take a good hard look at our security agencies and their technology toys used to watch, identify and search us wherever we go and whatever we say, write, buy, associate with, etc.
50. I hope you will find this a contribution to your deliberations. Please remember that I represent that great majority of Canadians who believe in just wars, and just wars only. And who hold their rights and freedoms dear.
_______ Richard Sharp
About author
Richard Sharp has been a privacy manager, consultant and advocate for over two decades.
