Sunday, December 30, 2012

#IdleNoMore #CDNPoli #NWT Arrange meeting requested by Chief Spence, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada tells @PMHarper

"...The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca; pm@pm.gc.ca

Dear Prime Minister,

Re: Meeting requested by Chief Theresa Spence of Attiwapiskat

We write to urge that you immediately arrange a meeting as requested by
Chief Theresa Spence. Chief Spence wants a meeting on a Nation to Nation
basis with the Prime Minister, the Crown, and the Provincial and
Territorial leaders along with all the First Nations leaders to discuss
First Nations' inherent and treaty rights.
[...]
Please remember that Canada is constitutionally defined as a "free and
democratic society" founded on principles that recognize the supremacy of
the rule of law. This means that law must be formulated with the informed
consent of the Canadian people. The equality rights in our constitution
are meant to ensure that law is used as a tool to achieve justice for all.
This is part of our traditional Anglo-Canadian constitutional heritage.
These principles have been affirmed by international human rights treaties
that Canada has ratified. The Canadian constitution also explicitly
requires respect for "aboriginal and treaty rights". Moreover, just as
Parliament was established to ensure that law-making is founded on
informed public discussion, so too the Supreme Court of Canada supports
the right of Indigenous peoples to meaningful consultation on issues that
concern them. In addition, we draw your attention to Article 19 of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which
Canada has endorsed, and which provides that...
"States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous
peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in
order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting
and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may
affect them."
In summary, in this country it is unquestionably illegal to use the power
of the State to destroy or repress rights or grant unwarranted privileges.
Conversely, it is unquestionably legal to use all peaceful means to
resolve both internal problems and external disputes...."
http://www.lrwc.org/canada-arrange-meeting-requested-by-chief-spence-lawyers-rights-watch-canada-tells-pm/

Saturday, December 29, 2012

The coming drone attack on America

The coming drone attack on America


"... People often ask me, in terms of my argument about "ten steps" that mark the descent to a police state or closed society, at what stage we are. I am sorry to say that with the importation of what will be tens of thousands of drones, by both US military and by commercial interests, into US airspace, with a specific mandate to engage in surveillance and with the capacity for weaponization – which is due to begin in earnest at the start of the new year – it means that the police state is now officially here. In February of this year, Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization Act, with its provision to deploy fleets of drones domestically. Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that this followed a major lobbying effort, "a huge push by […] the defense sector" to promote the use of drones in American skies: 30,000 of them are expected to be in use by 2020, some as small as hummingbirds – meaning that you won't necessarily see them, tracking your meeting with your fellow-activists, with your accountant or your congressman, or filming your cruising the bars or your assignation with your lover, as its video-gathering whirs. ... In other words, the Pentagon can now send a domestic drone to hover outside your apartment window, collecting footage of you and your family, if the secretary of Defense approves it. Or it may track you and your friends and pick up audio of your conversations, on your way, say, to protest or vote or talk to your representative, if you are not "specifically identified", a determination that is so vague as to be meaningless...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/21/coming-drone-attack-america

--
GEORGE LESSARD
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