Allegations of Conscripted Labour in Canadian Mine: the Fifth Estate

CBC News 

A Vancouver-based mining company that struck gold in the small East African country of Eritrea is being accused in a B.C. lawsuit of permitting forced labour to be used in the construction of its mine. Story here.

Upholding Women’s Human Rights Essential to Zika Response – UN Rights Chief

UN News Centre

Upholding women’s human rights is essential if the response to the Zika health emergency is to be effective, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today, following the advice to women by some governments to delay getting pregnant due to the possible link between the virus and neurological disorders affecting newborns. Story here.

For the Love of the Land: Keeping the Peace River from the Site C BC Hydro Dam

Dancing With Decolonization

When we arrived to camp we found new "no trespassing" signs (not ours) posted on trees and an eviction notice posted by hydro on to the shack. More here.

RELATED: "They're Killing the Peace River Valley in BC Now."

The Shrimp Industry’s Slave Labor Problem Is Even Worse Than We Thought

Munchies

Earlier this year, the Associated Press conducted a startling undercover investigation which found that seafood caught by slaves in Myanmar was reaching the shelves of American supermarkets. But now, AP says that a further investigation has revealed that global restaurants and stores—including supposedly conscientious retailers like Whole Foods—are also selling shrimp peeled by slaves. More here.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is opposing same changes protecting farm workers he once agreed with

PRESSPROGRESS

It sounds like Brian Jean is flip flopping once again.

The leader of Alberta's Wildrose Party has been making hay over Bill 6 lately, new legislation that seeks to correct Alberta's potentially unconstitutional labour laws by extending Workers' Compensation Board coverage to paid farm workers and bringing workplace safety up to par with other Canadian provinces.

"What goes around comes around," Jean recently told one rally opposing these changes.

Funny thing about that, mind you – Jean didn't seem to think the proposed WCB changes he's currently opposing were such a bad idea eight months ago. MORE HERE.

Nestlé Admits Slavery and Coercion Used in Catching its Seafood

CBC News

Global audit by the food giant finds abuse of workers who catch seafood from Thailand. Story here.

Colombia In The Shadow Of Human Rights Abuses

Common Frontiers

In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s new “Americas Policy,” through which Canada would build trade ties with governments that shared Canada’s values of “democracy, human rights, rule-of-law and good governance.” The Canadian government then announced negotiations for a free trade and investment deal with Colombia, the country with the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. Story here.

Qatar Refuses to let Nepalese Workers Return to Attend Funerals After Quake

theguardian

Nepalese minister says Fifa must pressure the Gulf state for better treatment of 1.5 million south Asian migrants. Story here.

Tell Canada to Respect the Rights of Migrant Mexican Workers! PLEASE SIGN!

care2 petitions

Mexican migrant workers have been coming to work in Canada for 40 years under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). However, there have been several reports that these workers have been discriminated against.  Despite this, Canada is turning a blind eye. Go here to sign.

Becoming Hezbollah's Air Force

Chris Hedges

Those who use violence to shape the world, as we have done in the Middle East, unleash a whirlwind. Our initial alliances -- achieved at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead, some $3 trillion in expenditures and the ravaging of infrastructure across the region -- have been turned upside down by the cataclysm of violence. Thirteen years of war, and the rise of enemies we did not expect, have transformed Hezbollah fighters inside Syria, along with Iran, into our tacit allies. Story here.

Voter Suppression on EDay Canada 2011 and Since...Please Contribute to the Making of an Important Film. GIVE GENEROUSLY!!

INDIEGOGO

This film will be for all Canadians.

Photos Capture Amazon Tribe As They Beat And Strip Illegal Loggers

Huffington Post

The Ka'apor Indians, a tribe of indigenous Brazilians living in the northeast region of the country's expansive rainforest, have begun taking up arms against illegal loggers who are threatening their homeland. On one of their recent searches for loggers, they were joined by Reuters photographer Lunae Parracho, who documented the scene when they reportedly found a number of the men. Story here.

What Would "Madiba" Have Done?

by Larry Powell

Prime Minister Harper's attendance at the funeral of Nelson Mandela has conjured up some fascinating scenarios for me.

While South Africa's repression of its black people will live on in infamy, Canada's treatment of our own indigenous people has hardly been exemplary, either. 

So, if Mandela, who so famously led his people out of bondage, were Prime Minister of Canada, what would he do here? 

Would he be; 

• slashing grants to native organizations? 
• refusing to hold a public inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women? 
• passing legislation (using closure) which leaves traditional native territories vulnerable to disruptive and polluting projects?
• rubber-stamping expansion of the tar sands which has, for years, been sickening the people of the Fort Chipewyan First Nation, downstream with rare cancers and other diseases? 
• cheerleading massive pipeline projects that cross pristine wilderness and fragile marine ecosystems on the doorstep of First Nations settlements?
• allowing "fracking" projects on traditional native territories and elsewhere (you know, the kinds that poison groundwater, turn tap water into something flammable and even trigger earthquakes)? 
• and allowing Members of Parliament like Rob Anders (see comment, below) to remain in his government? 

If my questions sound rhetorical, it's because they are.

The Harperites Approve Yet Another Tarsands Mine, Thumbing Their Noses at Mother Earth and First Nations People.

The Canadian Press 

Shell Canada's Jackpine oilsands mine expansion plan has received the go-ahead from Ottawa, despite the environment minister's view that it's "likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects." Details here.

It's Business That Really Rules Us Now

The Guardian

Lobbying is the least of it: corporate interests have captured the entire democratic process. No wonder so many have given up on politics. Full story here.

Stop a Human Rights Tragedy - Put a Heartless Billionaire in His Place at the Same Time

Warren Buffett is investing in a steel company that's planning to kick 22,000 Indian villagers from their homes. The UN's top experts have condemned the project -- tell Buffett to stop this human rights disaster now!

Larry,

Warren Buffett is investing in a massive steel company that's planning to force 22,0000 Indian villagers from their homes. Now, eight of the UN's top human rights officials have called for an immediate halt to the project -- and we need to make sure Buffett acts.

If this project goes ahead, thousands of acres of forest will be flattened, and tens of thousands of poor Indian villagers will lose their homes and livelihoods. The company behind this disaster is Posco Steel, a South Korean giant, in which Warren Buffett has invested more than $1 billion.

If Buffett uses his financial might, he can push Posco Steel to address the UN's human rights concerns or stop the project. He claims to uphold the "highest levels" of business ethics -- but still hasn't spoken out. 

Sign the petition to tell Warren Buffett: stand up for human rights and stop Posco's steel plant disaster.

Should Capital Punishment be Applied in the Bangladeshi Garment Tragedy?

by Larry Powell

I don't believe in capital punishment. Never have. 

But maybe now is the time for me - and the rest of society- to step back, take a deep breath, and take another look.

The profound evil which has been at play in the recent, horrific collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh - killing hundreds of innocent workers - sinks to such depths of depravity in every aspect, such a re-assessment seems suddenly appropriate.

And I'm not sure I'd stop at the owners of the building. Western multinational corporations  have blood on their hands, too, by using such despicable sweatshops to make their clothing, cheap - Wal Mart, Sears, Loblaws (the latter through its "Joe Fresh" clothing line in Canada and the 'States) - they've all filled their boots with more than their share of guilt. And the history of such things, steeped in blood as it has already become over the years, offers no way out for these heartless entities, to somehow claim ignorance of what is going on. 

Perhaps its time to round up the CEOs, and ship them all off for trial before the ICC. I'm not even sure whether the death penalty is within that court's mandate. If it is not, perhaps it should be! Let the court assess their guilt, or degree thereof, and make its judgement.

For they are just as surely guilty of neglect, criminal negligence and, yes, even murder, as the buildings owners/managers who forced those poor (in more ways than one) souls, into that building when they apparently knew full well it was not safe. There, hundreds died horrible and sometimes slow deaths over several agonizing days.

Whether they be corporate entities, individual executives or even shareholders, whether they be in my country, the US or abroad, I can feel no more sympathy for them than I do for terrorists or pedophiles. And what about the millions of consumers, who expect to buy clothing dirt-cheap without giving a thought, or caring whether they are creating consequences down the line? Should they be considered blameless? I'm sure many are just plain ignorant - or don't give a thought - as to what happens in the world around them. Does that render them innocent? 

I wonder.

Having said that, I am under absolutely no illusion that what I suggest here, will happen. Thanks to hollow, greedy people and their spineless enablers, our lawmaking politicians, our world has now fallen under such complete domination by the globalists and free marketeers, all hope for justice or even for vengeance, is indeed nothing more than a pipe-dream.

While, by writing this, I may have succeeded in getting something off my chest in some superficial way, it will be cold comfort indeed to the families of the innocents whose lives have been so needlessly and senselessly taken from us.

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Related article:  Battling for a Safer Bangladesh

Edgar Schmidt and Canadian Democracy

By Dennis Gruending

Edgar Schmidt, a senior lawyer in the federal Department of Justice, has taken a courageous and highly unusual step. Details here.