[R-G] Fwd: The Dominion's August in Review

[Anthony Fenton]

Dear reader,

Here is The Dominion's Month in Review for August, a selection of  
underreported news and updates from social movements. You can read it  
online here:

    http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2018
--

Montreal police shot three unarmed men during a confrontation in a  
park in North Montreal. Fredy Villanueva, an 18-year-old Honduran  
immigrant, died shortly after he was shot. Residents in the area,  
which is among Montreal's poorest, have complained about systemic  
racially-based police harassment in the community. Montreal's  
Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COPB) said that the Montreal  
police force and Quebec provincial police have a history of  
exonerating police officers who kill. Of 43 cases researched by COPB,  
the collective says that only two resulted in charges, and both  
officers were acquitted. Four days after the shootings, the police  
involved had yet to be questioned by investigators.

Hundreds of Bangladeshi garment workers attacked 15 factories, setting  
fire to several, vandalizing others, and blocking highways. Protests  
demanding unpaid back wages had gone unanswered, and several workers  
were beaten and shot at by private security forces. Sixty factories  
were closed down by the fighting, and some workers were paid their  
back wages.

Trade Unionists from Canada and Brazil met in Thompson, Manitoba, to  
discuss ways to support each other in negotiations withVale, a  
Brazilian mining multinational company. In 2006, Vale acquired Inco,  
Canada's second largest mining company, for $18.9 billion. "We  
discovered that we have several issues in common with our brothers and  
sisters in Brazil, including concerns around compensation... the  
environment and relationships with local communities, and health and  
safety," said one United Steelworkers representative. Vale, the  
world's largest producer of iron ore, announced second quarter profits  
of $5.01 billion.

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) criticized a government move to  
limit "fast-tracking" of citizenship applications for "certain  
classes" of temporary foreign workers. "By restricting this benefit to  
only professional, technical and skilled occupations, the government  
is setting up a permanent underclass of unskilled temporary foreign  
workers," said AFL President Gil McGowan.

A massive chunk of arctic ice broke off of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in  
Canada's arctic, which scientists said is part of an ongoing,  
irreversible weakening of arctic ice brought on by climate change.

Two large tornado-like waterspouts formed in the Saint Lawrence River  
near Montreal. Waterspouts usually occur in tropical regions. The  
river also saw increased levels of red algae, likely caused by heavy  
rainfall, and which contributed to the deaths of marine life,  
including seabirds, Beluga whales and sturgeon.

California-based researchers reported that populations of frogs and  
other amphibians have declined precipitously, in some cases by as much  
as 98 per cent. They cited climate change as one cause among many.  
Rainfall also spurred growth in the earwig population in New  
Brunswick, where a state of emergency was declared during several  
major floods. Farmers on Prince Edward Island reported several cases  
of blight, a crop-damaging fungus that thrives in humid conditions.  
Cape Breton farmers feared losing crops if heavy rainfall did not  
subside. In Quebec, it was a disastrous year for strawberries, but wet  
condition led to a bumper crop of blueberries.

A report released by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) estimated  
that 700,000 Canadians will die prematurely in the next two decades  
due to illness caused by poor air quality. This year, 21,000 Canadians  
will die as a result of polluted air, the CMA estimated.

Mohawk traditionalists and a group of Quebec farmers formed a  
coalition to opposefight the expansion of Quebec's Autoroute 30.  
Critics say the highway expansion will destroy land, raise dependence  
on the automobile, and increase pollution.

US-based agribusiness giant Monsanto divested from its bovine growth  
hormone (recombinant bovine somatotropin) products. The move comes  
after Monsanto's attempts to ban the labeling of milk as "hormone- 
free" was met with resistance from citizens at the state level.

Violence in Afghanistan was at its worst level since US forces invaded  
in 2001. Aid agencies reported that 260 Afghan civilians were killed  
in July. Two Canadian aid workers were killed in a Taliban ambush. The  
US Secretary of Defense endorsed a $20 billion plan to double the size  
of Afghanistan's army. The New York Times reported that the Taliban  
have demonstrated "a resilience and a ferocity" that is "raising  
alarm" in Washington and "other NATO capitals."

Fighting between Islamic separatists and government forces in the  
Philippines displaced over 130,000 refugees, and could lead to a  
humanitarian disaster.

Documents that show that the RCMP spied on feminist groups from the  
1960s through the 1980s were discovered. Among the personalities  
appearing in RCMP reports was Maritime singer-songwriter Rita MacNeil.

US Congress reported that two thirds of US corporations paid no income  
tax in 2007 by manipulating data and using loopholes. Watchdog group  
Public Citizen also released research showing that oil companies  
avoided paying more than $1.3 billion in royalties due to a  
"bureaucratic oversight."

A group of cyclists began a 1,000 km trek from tar sands operations  
near Fort McMurray, Alberta, to Calgary to raise awareness of the  
environmental impacts of the tar sands. First Nations leaders and  
conservationists met for the Keepers of the Water conference, where  
they developed strategies to protect the Athabasca watershed, which  
has been heavily polluted by tar sands operations. Communities  
downstream from tar sands strip mines and plants have reported  
alarming increases in cancer rates.

Saskatchewan's government partially avoided the ire of protesters when  
they opted not to accept any of the bids for oil sands permits in the  
province. The government said the oils sands bids were not high  
enough, but accepted $243 million in conventional oil bids. New oil  
exploration in BC and Saskatchewan exceeded that of Alberta, where  
most of the oil patch rights have been sold.

Palestinian poet, politician and author Mahmoud Darwish died at the  
age of 67. Anticommunist dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyndied at 89.  
Singer, actor and creator the Shaft theme Isaac Hayes died at 65.  
Comedian and actor Bernie Mac died at 50. Pentagon Papers researcher  
Anthony Russo died at 71. The oldest Orca Whale on BC's south coast,  
known as Lummi, was missing and presumed dead at 98.

The food crisis in Haiti continued, where cakes made of mud have  
become a staple food, eaten for their temporary filling effect if not  
for their nutritional value. According to the UN, over half of Haiti's  
population is at risk of starvation, due to rising food costs and the  
decimation of the country's food production by International Monetary  
Fund-imposed reforms in the 1990s.

US hospitals are deporting immigrants after they are discharged, the  
New York Times reported. Companies like MexCare are providing  
hospitals with "medical repatriations," which are happening with  
"varying degrees of patient consent," the Timesreported.

The Conservative Government's cuts to arts grants worth $40 million  
drew sharp criticism across Canada, with artists and promoters calling  
the move "disastrous" and signaling a potential "death knell" of local  
music industries.

Australia's government announced it would end its policy of jailing  
all asylum seekers.

Six hundred Canadian military personnel carried out Operation Nanook  
in Nunavut. The yearly military exercise is in part designed as a sort  
of "sovereignty patrol," according to Lt.-Col. Gino Chretien. The  
armed forces also held a panel discussion as part of the operation.  
According to Inuk Lawyer Aaju Peter, "I wanted to hear what the  
military and the police were doing with this whole assertion of  
sovereignty and how they were going about it. I also wanted to go to  
see how much Inuit representation there would be and what kind of  
questions that were going to be posed at this meeting. Unfortunately,  
I was on the only Inuit there."

Investigative journalists working for Mother Jones outed Mary Sapone,  
aka Mary McFate, a spy with National Rifle Associationconnections, who  
was active as a gun control and anti-gun advocate for years.

Evo Morales won an important victory in a recall referendum in  
Bolivia, giving him a strong mandate to continue with his party's  
political program. Prior to the referendum, violent protests by  
Morales' opponents, including clashes with police, forced Hugo Chavez  
and Cristina Kirchner from meeting with the Bolivian president in the  
city of Tarija.

Exxon Mobil reported record breaking profits of $11.7 billion in the  
second quarter of 2008. The US Supreme Court still has not ruled on  
whether or not Exxon will have to pay interest on the $507 million  
punitive award granted to the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill  
in Alaska. The decision regarding the interest payment has been sent  
to a lower court. With interest, the payout would be closer to $1  
billion.

Chevron and a consortium of oil companies signed an agreement with  
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams to develop the  
offshore Hebron-Ben Nevis heavy-oil project. Days later it was  
announced that Chevron "stepped aside" as project operator, leaving  
that job to Exxon Mobil.

Statistics Canada reported that 55,000 jobs were lost in Canada during  
the month of July. According to economist Jim Stanford, "National  
productivity hasn't grown at all in the over two years since Harper  
came to power - the worst productivity performance for any  
administration in Canada's post-war history."

Parks Canada defended their July 29 decision to allow the reopening of  
an historic zinc mine next to the Nahanni National Park Reserve. The  
Prairie Creek mine site is on a tributary of the South Nahanni River.  
The Dehcho First Nation, which has been negotiating with Parks Canada  
to expand the park to include the entire Nahani River watershed, was  
not consulted in the agreement made between the federal agency and the  
Canadian Zinc Corp.

Ehud Olmert resigned as Prime Minister of Israel, prompting calls for  
an early election from Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud Party.

In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez announced plans to nationalise the Bank of  
Venezuela, currently owned by Spain's Grupo Santander. Other sectors  
slated for nationalisation include cement and telecommunications.

Stephen Harper apologized for the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, when  
376 Indians, including many Sikhs, were not allowed to disembark from  
their ship and were eventually forced to return to India, where 20 of  
the passengers were massacred by colonial police. The apology took  
place in Surrey, BC, and was immediately rejected by the 8,000 strong  
crowd and Sikh leaders, who demanded that an official apology be made  
in the House of Commons.

Speculation mounted that CanWest Global may take the company private.  
The company, which owns the National Post, daily papers across Canada  
and Global TV, has seen its share price decline 83 per cent over the  
last 18 months, and is carrying a debt of over $3 billion.

US scientist Bruce Ivans died in an apparent suicide after learning  
that he was to be indicted on charges relating to the anthraxthat was  
mailed to members of US congress in late 2001, killing five people.

The state of Texas executed a Mexican citizen, José Medellin, and a  
Honduran man, Heliberto Chi. The execution of Chi was the sixth so far  
this year in Texas.

Alfred Heinz Reumayr, from New Westminister, BC, was sentenced in a  
New Mexico court to 13 years in prison, after pleading guilty to one  
count of terrorism for plotting to blow-up the Trans-Alaska oil  
pipeline. Reumayr was in custody for nine years, during which time he  
was extradited to the US, and is required to serve another four years.

In Mauritania, the army carried out a coup against the government of  
Hamdi Ould Mohamed el-Hacen, ending a one year period of democracy in  
the West African country. The coup was condemned by the African Union.

The International Criminal Court confirmed that they would open an  
investigation into the links between paramilitaries and government  
officials in Colombia as well as the extradition of Colombian  
paramilitaries to the US. Death threats against the Nasa people in  
Colombia's southwestern department of Cauca generated fear in  
Santander de Quilichao, where more than 25 people have been  
assassinated over the past two weeks. A bomb exploded at a street  
festival in Ituango, in the department of Antioquia, killing seven and  
seriously injuring 17.

In Guatemala, two masked men swerved in front of Amilcar Pop's car,  
drew guns and banged on the windows while yelling death threats. Pop  
is the president of the Guatemalan Association of Mayan Lawyers.

Fernando Lugo was inaugurated president of Paraguay, officially ending  
62 years of rule by the Colorado party.

Mauricio Funes, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)  
candidate and front-runner in the presidential race in El Salvador,  
announced that he would restore diplomatic relations with Cuba if he  
is elected in the March 2009 vote.

Canadian border services ordered Jeremy Hinzman and his family to  
leave Canada by September 23. Hinzman was the first US war resister to  
seek asylum in Canada.

Pervez Musharraf stepped down as president of Pakistan, in order to  
avoid impeachment and following pressure from the US and other western  
countries.

Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal), a Maoist leader, was elected prime  
minister by lawmakers in the Constituent Assembly inNepal. Prachanda  
is a teacher and the former head of the armed insurgency in Nepal,  
which lasted 10 years and ended with a 2006 peace agreement. The  
Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy in May of this year.

One hundred people were arrested and 46 charged in week-long protests  
against the Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant inEngland. German-owned  
Kingsnorth will be the first new coal-fired plant to open in England  
in more than 30 years. About 1,500 people took part in the protests;  
police presence was estimated to have equaled the number of protesters.

Twelve employees of SNC-Lavalin in Algeria were killed and fifteen  
injured in a car bomb attack near Bouira, 150 kilometres southeast of  
Algiers. The attack took place while the employees were on a bus  
traveling to the Koudiat Acerdoune water-treatment plant, being built  
by the Montreal-based corporation. The Montreal Gazette reported that  
it "was the first terrorist attack on SNC-Lavalin employees in 50  
years of operating all over the world."

China hosted the 2008 Olympics and spent $12 billion on security,  
installing thousands of cameras and high-tech surveillance systems.  
Olympic organizers admitted to faking part of the fireworks and having  
a child lip-sync the national anthem on the television broadcast of  
the opening ceremonies. Lefty sportswriter David Zirin called the  
Games "the Olympics the West wanted: games where the grandest prize is  
not a gold medal but a glittering entree to China's seemingly endless  
army of potential consumers."

Forty homeless people were moved from Oppenheimer Park to three  
Vancouver hotels after BC Premier Gordon Campbell faced critical  
questions from Chinese media about homelessness in the city during his  
visit to the Olympics in Beijing. Housing advocatesquestioned  
Campbell's assertion that Vancouver will overcome its homelessness  
problem by 2010.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty denounced the choice of the City  
of Toronto's "Streets to Homes" program as a finalist for a World  
Habitat Award, calling it "a cover for an agenda of social exclusion  
in the service of upscale urban redevelopment."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stated, "finishing the  
fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban" in Afghanistan and potentially  
also Pakistan "is a war that we have to win…. We need more troops,  
more helicopters, more satellites."

Obama announced that he will share the Democratic ticket with Delaware  
Senator Joe Biden. Glenn Greenwald, remarked at Salon.com, "Biden is a  
reliable supporter of virtually every prevailing bit of conventional  
wisdom within the American elite political consensus, which is why his  
selection has been widely praised by the establishment."

Republican candidate John McCain announced Alaskan Governor Sarah  
Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. The choice of Palin came  
as a surprise, leading to the media once again labeling McCain as a  
maverick. But criticism about Palin's limited experience came quickly.  
The two leading Alaskan newspapers questioned McCain's decision, with  
the Anchorage Daily Newsquoting a Republican official as asking,  
"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice  
president or president?"

McCain, former chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, also  
offended Great Plains tribal leaders when he attended a rowdy  
motorcycle rally in South Dakota instead of responding to their  
invitations for discussion. Tribal concerns included the disrespect to  
nearby sacred site Bear Butte Mountain by rowdy events involving  
alcohol.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favour of the Arizona  
Snowbowl ski resort, permitting artificial snowmaking using treated  
wastewater and the expansion of the resort on the San Francisco Peaks,  
sacred to many indigenous nations.

The Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the US EPA,  
along with other federal agencies, outlined a five-year plan to clean  
up 520 abandoned uranium mines and contaminated water in Dineh  
territory.

Indigenous demonstrators took over oil and gas installations in Peru,  
demanding that Congress revoke a law that facilitates the purchase of  
collectively owned land by mining and energy corporations. A week  
later, the Peruvian government issued a decreefor three provinces,  
allowing it to send in the armed forces.

Norwegian Knighthood was bestowed upon Nils Olav, a penguin, at the  
Edinburgh Zoo and mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard. In Killorglin,  
Ireland, a mountain goat was crowned King of Ireland for three days.