Briarpatch articles from December 2005

Briarpatch archives from December 2005

Thanks and bon voyage!(The business end of the 'patch)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... In late November we bade a fond fare well to our design interns Ilona Babiyets and Anne Price. Ilona and Anne were with us since early September as part of a Canada World Youth "Netcorps" exchange with Ukraine, and have now departed for the...

Awww ...(The business end of the 'patch)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... Dear Briarpatch, Our son Jeffrey has been buying your magazine since he went to the U of S, and was always referring to some article or another. Lo and behold, last Christmas he gave us a subscription to his favourite magazine. The...

Swim-a-thon reminder.(The business end of the 'patch)
December 1, 2005... Everybody into the pool! Come and join us at the YMCA at 4:30 on December 8 for our Twelfth Annual Swim-a-thon fundraiser. Give us a call today and we'll rush you a pledge form!

All we want for Xmas ...(The business end of the 'patch)
December 1, 2005... Well, besides world peace, we could sure use a new computer. The PC we use to design the magazine (which we've lovingly nicknamed "the ticking time bomb") has started sounding more like a food processor than a data processor, and we've had to...

Correction.(The business end of the 'patch)(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... The editor apologizes to the people of Colombia for spelling the name of their country (in the review of Stan Golf's Full Spectrum Disorder) as if it were a Canadian province.

The responsibility to dissect.(Editor's Dispatch)
December 1, 2005... Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are. Thucydides, 455 BCE On a recent visit to Haiti, writer and activist Justin Podur wrote: "I came to Haiti on a short trip to study a...

No longer welcome: Canada's Immigration Refugee Board closes the door on Romani refugees from Hungary.
December 1, 2005... At Toronto's CultureLink centre, an organization that helps settle new immigrants, Mark Reczkiewicz and Hajnalka Hamori sit on a couch in the common room. Hajnalka's four-year-old daughter Regina flops down between them and closes her eyes as...

"Detestable murderers and scumbags": making sense of Canada's deployment in Afghanistan.
December 1, 2005... On July 11, 2005, with great nuance and tact, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff General Hillier described the forces arrayed against the NATO mission in Afghanistan: "These are detestable murderers and scumbags, I'll tell you that right up front....

Good night Battle of Britain, good morning Gaza: Maple Flag, the Israeli Air Force, and "the new type of battle we are being asked to fight".
December 1, 2005... Out of two hundred warplanes that took part in Exercise Maple Flag 2005 in Cold Lake, Alberta in May, only ten were Israeli F-16s. It would be easy to miss their significance. Yet, when Canadian forces extended an invitation to the Israeli Air...

"Legalized imperialism": "Responsibility to Protect" and the dubious case of Haiti.
December 1, 2005... Neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation and acquisition. It's not just a matter of going out there and getting a territory and sitting on it. Both of these practices are supported and perhaps even impelled by...

Genocide in progress at Lubicon Lake: UN Human Rights Committee condemns Canadian government inaction on Lubicon land claim.
December 1, 2005... On October 17, representatives of the Lubicon Cree delivered a formal complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva. The delegation sought the UN's help to pressure the Canadian government on two demands: to return in good...

On top of a gold mine: Canadian mining corporations wreak havoc in the Philippines.
December 1, 2005... Imperialism used to be a political and military game of land conquest and resource stealing. Now, in the age of free markets and transnational corporations, imperialism not only wears the reassuring suits of politicians or the uniforms of...

Guantanamo North? Security Certificates and secret trials in Canada.
December 1, 2005... "Those who exchange liberty for security will soon find they have neither." Benjamin Franklin (attributed) "As someone who has suffered and endured physical and psychological torture at the hands of a regime that does not respect...

Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America Maude Barlow McClelland & Stewart, 2005 "This Mouse Should Roar" Trudeau's famous analogy of Canada's relationship with the United States was "a mouse in bed...

Hope in the Dark: Untold Stories, Wild Possibilities.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Hope in the Dark: Untold Stories, Wild Possibilities Rebecca Solnit Nation, 2004 "Every line we succeed in publishing today--no matter how uncertain the future to which we entrust it--is a victory wrenched from the powers of darkness....

Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton RED/Fernwood, 2005 With the release of their short and readable book Canada in Haiti, Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton have offered up a timely and useful...

After Iraq: War, Imperialism and Democracy.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... After Iraq: War, Imperialism and Democracy Jim Harding Fernwood, 2004 On March 15th 200.3, 70 anti-war demonstrators marched in the tow n of Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, joining millions across Canada and the world in what was the...

Quotes from the underground.
December 1, 2005... "There are no excuses for the way we live our lives. There isn't even ignorance to cover our heads with anymore." Michael Crummy, Arguments with Gravity "I see my little grandson, ten months old now, and I know the meaning of...

Canada fails the sustainability test.(The Last Word)(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Simon Fraser University report )
December 1, 2005... In October 2005, Simon Fraser University released The Maple Leaf in the OECD: Comparing Progress Towards Sustainability, a study that compared Canada's efforts to achieve sustainability to those of the other thirty members of the Organization...