STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: Canada Day Star Wars Action Date: 7/2/01 2:09:48 AM Mountain Daylight Time From: command@. interlog.com (Gary Morton) Reply-to: command@. interlog.com To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (cjazz@. interlog.com) Canada Day Star Wars Action - July 1.2001 Two Reports and Photos 1. Canada Day or Independence Day by Gary Morton (Canada Day Essay and notes on the Star Wars action) 2. Canada Day at CFB Downsview from TASC (Report on the Protest Action and Canada's military involvement) Digital Photos - Star Wars Action (CitizensontheWeb.com) Ladies hold the Homes Not Bombs Banner http://home.eol.ca/~command/cstar1.jpg Canada Out of Star Wars Banner http://home.eol.ca/~command/cstar2.jpg Canada Out of Star Wars Banner at the military base http://home.eol.ca/~command/cstar3.jpg With the Soldiers http://home.eol.ca/~command/cstar4.jpg Little Boy Commando http://home.eol.ca/~command/cstar5.jpg -------- Canada Day or Independence Day? By Gary Morton Today's Canada Day action against Star Wars involved a 2 km peace walk in a rush of wind and bright sunshine. We went to CFB Downsview then on to the Canada Day fair at the park. We passed military people on the road to the park and one woman soldier smiled, waved and shouted hello to us. At the fair we stood next to a military display where soldiers in combat gear with a tent and jeeps were dressing kids in war outfits and camouflage greases. We put a banner on either side of the tent. Matthew and others handed out flyers on the Star Wars issue and we ended up talking with soldiers. One wanted us to move as he felt the banner would scare off the kids by causing them to equate the military with Star Wars, Darth Vader and evil stuff. He went on to tell us that Canada's role is as a peacekeeper with observers in the Congo, Bosnia, etc. Since I grew up in a military town, I'm aware that most Canadian soldiers see Canada as a peacekeeper. It is unfortunate that Canada's policies have abandoned peacekeeping. We tied ourselves to the New World Order war machine in Iraq/Yugoslavia and are now developing a dangerous space warfare capacity through involvement with President Bush and his Star Wars plan. The Homes Not Bombs news release points out that Defence Minister Art Eggleton is a major booster of Star Wars. He has stated that Canada is ready and willing to go to war even if it violates international law. So our soldiers want peace when we've in fact gone a long way from it. On Canada Day this year we have also gone a long way from Canada. There really should be a Canada Day award for the most American Canadian. As well as Star Wars, we have Mike Harris calling for a Niagara Free Trade Zone and an advisor to the Prime Minister calling for the dismantling of the border with the US and the elimination of Canadian sovereignty through adoption of the American dollar. Environment Minister David Anderson wants a NAFTA deal for disposing of hazardous wastes, which would mean our environmental policies would be set by Bush in the USA. And U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, agrees. He is calling for a NAFTA-plus relationship to harmonize border controls, law enforcement, energy, environmental and immigration policies. This absolute abandonment of the Canadian people, our beliefs, democracy and culture is so bold that it has shocked right-wing fanatics from the Fraser Institute. They feel we should sell out softly, and that our neo-liberal government is going to provoke a backlash by making the Canadian people aware of what is going on. July 4 is Independence Day in the USA so I suppose that by next year our government will be proposing harmonizing Canada Day with the US holiday to create a new Canada Independence Day that will celebrate our takeover by transnational corporations and George Bush. Since nothing is really taught at the Canada Day fairs, it would be easy to do. Chretien could replace our flag with the harmonized American version and feed the people with the same junk hotdogs, popcorn and silly games. The real question is whether we as Canadians will allow it. We could rise in revolution and create genuine independence and a Canada without Star Wars, Nike and George Bush. ------- Report on the Protest Action Canada Day at CFB Downsview (a report from Toronto Action for Social Change) Despite gale-force winds that started out the day, a hardy band of 15 souls paraded with banners and placards along the Sheppard Ave. West boundary of Canadian Forces Base Downsview in a protest against Canadian participation in Star Wars July 1. The clear messages-"Canada: Get Out of Star Wars" and "Homes not Bombs" in brightly coloured banners-visited the guard booth at DCIEM-one of five War Research and Development Canada branches currently working on better and more economical ways of killing people. The group then walked on to the base and began flyering visitors to the Canada Day Celebrations. Most of "security" was provided by air and sea cadets, a form of child soldiers which Canada has yet to acknowledge violates its commitment to a convention prohibiting child soldiers. Our group from Toronto Action for Social Change was pleased to provide Canada Day Peace Quizzes which allowed the children to test their skills when it comes to the truth about Canada and space warfare. After wondering where, exactly, to set up shop and hand out their 500 flyers, the answer came quite suddenly near the main entrance to the festivities. Under the orange banner "Soldier For a Day," there was the Canadian Armed Forces dressing up babies and really small youngsters in full army gear-the olive drab outfits and camouflage facepaint. The kids could get their face painted and have a picture taken between two grown-up, fully camouflaged Canadian soldiers, for all of three bucks. Figuring this is where we were meant to be, we set up our banners and began flyering with our peace quizzes on Canada and space warfare. Responses ranged from slight interest and some really positive responses from those who did not know Canada was involved in Star Wars to those who told us we were essentially a bunch of copulating posterior exit tunnels (to put it delicately). As a half dozen members of Metro police looked on from their strategically positioned command post next door to the armed forces tent, we stood for a few hours completing our task, engaging passersby. The police seemed uninterested in responding to Canada Day organizers' attempts to have us removed. The protest took place a shy two days after the Canadian Forces launched a massive new recruiting drive. $15 million that could be going to affordable housing to ease the homelessness crisis in this country has instead been earmarked for a year-long propaganda campaign of 60 and 90 second military recruitment ads aimed at kids that will air in Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players and AMC theatres for the rest of the year (another reason to avoid the big box cinemas). According to a War Dept. press release, the ad campaign is part of a larger psychological war operation to increase acceptance of killing as a career choice. In addition to a new website-www.forces.ca, "there will be Canadian Forces recruiters at many pubic events across the country this summer. Visits to schools will be carried out through the school year [and more info] is available by calling (800) 856-8488. Since the majority of theatregoers over the summer are kids, you might ask why the military is recruiting child soldiers. It's a free call. Anyone interested in presenting the ugly side of war which such recruiting events are likely to ignore should contact Homes not Bombs, which will only be too delighted to remind folks that beneath the fuzzy images of soldiers handing out blankets, there is, as former Canadian General Lewis Mackenzie reminds us, only one purpose for having soldiers: In the Globe and Mail, he wrote: "As much as Canadians would like to ignore the fact, the role of a soldier is to kill as efficiently as possible with the resources available once he is ordered to do so by his government. There are many sidelines to his profession that make us all feel warm and fuzzy...But they are all subordinate to one overriding responsibility, and that is to kill on demand." One of the soldiers present today, who refused to take the peace quiz, was asked how he felt about bombing hospitals, bridges, daycares, apartment buildings, and other civilian infrastructure in Iraq and Yugoslavia. He replied, " Damned proud. I was there both times, and I'd do it again if I had to." RSVP: Toronto Action for Social Change and Homes not Bombs Toronto (416) 651-5800 or tasc@. web.ca -------- ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
