Tag Archives: John Horgan

Is Justice tied to the rule of law?

The state of justice in the USA

And a little now in Canada

Well, Friday 31st January 2020 confirmed what most of us think about the state of justice in the USA.

If you are black person specially or for that matter any person of colour (other than orange that is) and you are lucky enough not to be shot by the police simply because you are black and they feel it their duty to gun you down, you cannot expect a fair trial.  Your colour will always be a prejudice against you and you will most likely go to jail whether or not you are guilty of even a simple perceived traffic violation.

If on the other hand you are what comedian talk show host Bill Maher described as an angry orangutan you will not even receive a proper trial; because in your case there will be no witnesses called at your trial and your obedient republican members of the senate – minus one  (in spite of their oaths which clearly meant nothing) will render a partisan verdict of not guilty.  The interest and support of the US constitution has been abandoned in favour of a man of prejudice, bigotry and white supremacist beliefs who delighted in ordering and boasted about the killing of a man on a peace mission bringing us to the very brink of WW3. Peace in the middle east is not in the interest of either the USA (money) or Israel (lust for power and land), and so any real peace maker had to be gunned down.

Justice demands a fair trial because no man/woman should be above the law, and a fair trial must include witnesses from both sides. Since this was refused then one has to assume that the president of the USA is above the law (so much for their vaunted constitution), or that a fair trial could not and would not be held in this case to prevent impeachment of someone whose desire for personal success is paramount and everyone else is just a utensil.

The not guilty verdict unleashed a barrage of ugly tweets from a somewhat deranged person, followed last week with the presidential pardon of some serious criminals just like him.  I think it is a fairly safe bet that Roger Stone will only serve a few days in jail if at all.

The home of “the brave and free” is now blessed by a devilish reality show host for a president, not some form of mythical god and unless the good people of the USA do something about it they will suffer for many years of agony.

Albert Einstein:

“The world is a dangerous place not because of evil people, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

Now regretfully there is an unhealthy discussion here in Canada too, what else can you expect from Canada’s version of the republican party, concerning “whiteman’s law” and the original peoples’ law long preceding the Magna Carta.  Somehow we are arrogant enough to think our modern version is better.

What will it take to get us all to accept that we are all human beings regardless of our skin colour, religious beliefs, orientation, or desire to just live in peace; just let our national pride out when we play games against each other.  Would that be too much to ask?

 

 

Jeremy

Wet’suwet’en

February 2020

We now have our own version of Standing Rock here in Canada, involving real people who live as they have for millennia on unceded territory in British Columbia.

Under the Indian Act, it was decreed that there would be elections on reservations etc., to run those reserves and those who won the brass goose would be called elected chiefs.  Problem is that like almost every politician in North America, they are subject to the bribes or threats of the corporate powers whose only interest is money.  These elected chiefs in Wet’suwet’en,  for whichever of the above reasons, fell in line with the power structure (read corporate right and profit versus peoples’ rights) and here is where the whole problem arises. 

The elected chiefs are there to run their reserves as businesses and in accordance to the scraps given them by federal and provincial money, and even smaller scraps by corporate powers plundering their lands.

The Hereditary Chiefs are there to ensure that the way of life, the land, the waters and the air are not irreparably damaged for those yet to come. They too are the keepers of history and tradition and that includes sacred lands where their ancestors are buried.

The Hereditary Chiefs are not bound by threats of less money or the promise of more money as that is not their way.  Their way is the way of the land as it has been for thousands of years.  Because of their stewardship of the land, air and water it is all still there for their people and they are trying to make sure that it will be next year, next decade and next century.  Don’t try and tell them they can’t get by without money, for money is only a new imposition upon them since the foreigners attacked and stole some of this land a few centuries ago and introduced them to European ways of treachery.

Under the leadership of the Hereditary Chiefs, there are still animals to trap, water to drink and clean air to breathe and life experiences to be taught to the young people; that is all under attack by corporate greed with elected people from Canada and BC in full agreement.  

 Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish has been caught
will we realize that we can’t eat money  (Native American Proverb)

So what is happening in the unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en is an affront to all those who agree with and have signed on to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Can you imagine the outcry if the Algonquin territory upon which our capital is built, was to be taken back and turned into a massive amusement park? Oh, actually I suppose it has already if you have a twisted sense of humour, for it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate between politicians and willful children pretending to have fun.

 If this is what it means when the PM reiterates over and over again that the most important relationship the government has is with our First Nations, Inuit and Metis, then we are in a period of time travelling with Alice through her looking glass.

 What have we become Canada?

Alberta and Saskatchewan unhappy again

“Wexit”  !

 

Alberta and Saskatchewan are talking about leaving confederation because they do not agree with social governments, preferring instead austerity for the people and handouts for the corporations which are destroying our earth. Ok, that is their choice as it was the choice of Canadians outside those two provinces to reject that notion.  They seem to feel a sense of alienation when could it be that what they are mad about is that Canadians as a whole don’t think like them; that is to say Alberta and Saskatchewan are the breadbaskets and lubrication provinces that hold the country together financially and should be bowed down to and given everything they desire. Really? Would that have happened under a Scheer government? Yeah, right!  His American side would be clearly in lockstep with Trumpian non-values.

What on the face of it seems like a spoiled brat or two crying and stamping their feet in order to get mommy’s attention actually shows how little Alberta and Saskatchewan have really thought this through.  Alberta is mad because that province has squandered what it had that was created by Peter Lougheed many years ago which was a model for Norway’s fantastic financial situation; and now after years of terrible conservative manipulation in that province, they are in essence broke and landlocked. Instead of reaping the rewards of careful husbandry of their main resource they are now “sans” the Heritage Fund advantage and stuck with a one market product they call oil, which is in fact bitumen.  As long as they call it oil their heads are stuck in the sand from which the bitumen is taken.  One market you ask? Well yes according to the FTA and then NAFTA we can increase our percentage of production of any petroleum export to the USA to 100% but we cannot reduce it at all. Article 605 of NAFTA.

We hear from media and politicians that there are new markets waiting for the bitumen but never are they described.  Notley, Kenney, Freeland, Trudeau, Carr to mention just a few have not been able to give me the name of even one refinery in any new destination country that is wanting this Alberta goop.  So naturally, the question arises: why the TMX expansion if not just another way to ship to the USA?  Meanwhile, Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington State, is as concerned about the possibility of an accident in Georgie or Juan da Fuca straights and the resulting toxic gases release into the local winds as are we on southern Vancouver Island.

Incidentally in this as yet un-ratified USMCA investment deal there is a segment ( Article 32.10) on other investment (trade deals) entered into by one country without including the other two will make USMCA null and void.   How does the US talking a new trade deal with China fit with this? Yet our weak-kneed corporate government will ratify it anyway.

Is the assumption that BC will automatically leave Canada with an arch-enemy? After all, we are under legislated threat of having Alberta cut us off from oil and gas supply.  They want to destroy our interior with clumps of bitumen and toxic gases when the TMX  pipe ruptures and of course the Stampeders always beat up on the Lions, so are we really expected to roll over and join them in their foolishness.   BC, on the other hand, could leave Canada and be completely self-sustaining.  Actually, though, the problem is more complex when you consider the First Nations treaties with Canada, and BC having signed on to the UNDRIP makes it even more complicated.  For some reason, Alberta and Canada have not so signed, presumably because such a signature would hamper the ability to trample on First Nations’ rights.

But what would leaving Canada actually achieve? Both provinces would still be landlocked, and while they could still export grain, wheat, beef, pork etc., it would be through foreign ports, probably charging more with maybe even import/export duties charged, and what would happen to the people of those two provinces about the OAS and CPP, not to mention healthcare? The rest of Canada being the generous people they are would graciously honour the current recipients, but for the rest of you?  The youth of both provinces would not be happy about that now would they?

So back to the discontent within Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Granny used to say “put all your eggs in one basket and if you fall you most likely will not have any eggs”. Well you two, it seems you have fallen and now have not one representative in the federal government between you.  IF this country was a democracy that would not really matter much as your representatives (MPs) would have a voice, but much to the chagrin of many, many Canadians we are not a democracy and there is virtually no representation on behalf of the people in our House of Commons anyway.

The Alberta in which I lived and worked for many years was a relatively happy, friendly and welcoming place. Now after years of conservative rule both provincially and federally the whole picture has changed to where redneck, bigoted, anti-immigration, and yellow-vested supremacists are well represented by the likes of Kenney whose intended austerity measures (anticipated by me anyway) were held back in a budget not delivered until after the federal election. Anyone really surprised by that?

What Canada sorely lacks is love and compassion for each other no matter who or what.  Yes, there are some who have an abundance of both but ……

 

Jeremy

Canada is back ?????

Sent to Prime Minister Trudeau and other political misfits listed below

Unist’ot’en, Cat Lake and Venezuela

I am very upset and frustrated at the actions taken by the RCMP on behalf of a corporation which has not and obviously does not feel the need to get agreement from all levels of aboriginal leadership before it destroys the livelihood and, eventually I am sure, the homes of those Canadians – the people of Unist’ot’en. What is happening in northern BC is indeed an insult to not only the people who live there, but also to all Canadians.

Even Lord Dufferin stated back in the 1800s that there was “an initial error” in the way BC dealt with the “Indian title” issue. In the talk he went on and said that in Canada, “Before we touch a single acre, we make a treaty with the chief representing the bands we are dealing with, and having agreed up and paid the stipulated price….we enter into possession, but not until then do we consider that we are entitled to deal with a single acre”.

We do understand that in swearing allegiance to the Crown (sic. corporate power and profit) and not to the Canadian people you have in fact abandoned all the Canadian people to please that Crown. Now you are going to ask us to vote you back in again so that you can swear allegiance to a foreign entity again and ignore us until 2023. No wonder you didn’t want anything but FPTP voting.

I cannot understand how thick skinned you must be to state over and over again that your priority is to establish a good relationship with our First Nations, Inuit and Metis, and yet here you are using a national rent-a-cop paramilitary force to stop them from accessing their homes and trap lines. At the same time, that force is protecting and even promoting the illegal actions of Coastal GasLink and their contractors. Clearly, you have no shame, no humility, no understanding of anything but bowing down to the corporate profit which guides what you do.

What is truly sickening is that any alternative government will do exactly the same as both those other parties are as controlled by the Crown and corporate wellbeing as are you. Even a minority government will no longer be a viable alternative, as all members will swear allegiance not to the Canadian people who vote for you and pay for you but to the Crown.

How many times do you have to be reminded that each time you refer to Canada as a democracy in our House of Commons you are showing us your ignorance at what a democracy is or should be, and you are at the same time misleading the House which is supposed to be against the House rules. Canada has never been a democracy and never will be under the present governmental stewardship. We have a parliamentary system that is indifferent to the people which is the exact opposite of a democracy.

Combined that with your acceptance of an upstart as the new president of Venezuela you have demonstrated again to the Canadian people that you are out of touch with us, that you are out of touch with what Canada should and could be, or is this what you really meant by: “Canada is back”..

No State or group of States has the right to intervene or interfere in any form or for any reason whatsoever in the internal and external affairs of other States. … The right and duties set out in this Declaration are interrelated and are in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.Dec 9, 1981

What right, I ask you, do you have to complain about another country’s government and its perceived bad treatment of it’s people when here at home in Canada we have deliberately kept our First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in poverty and squalour on reservations not of their choosing, living without drinkable water and in moldy houses as now is shown to be the case in yet another reservation – Cat Lake. Instead, you self-righteously take your orders from foreigners and their corporations before you deal with the problems we have right here in Canada.

Did you not learn anything by our actions in that disastrous and horrendous war on the people of Libya on behalf of the IMF? American military intervention means bombing what they consider to be an offending country into rubble and oblivion without regard for the civilians killed as happened in Libya. Do you want to take us there again?

All your grand words and talk of perceived atrocities in another country means nothing when you treat our original inhabitants of this fantastic land like vermin, to be pushed aside and extinguished all for the sake of a few worthless pieces of paper.

Yes, I am angry and absolutely disgusted.

I am too old to assist physically but I have and will again donate to and support the Unist’ot’en cause and their right to live unmolested on their un-ceded traditional territories which, up until the European settlers came with gold lust and power in their hearts, have supported their way of life for millennium.

Jeremy Arney

 

“Trudeau, Justin” <justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca>,
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“Rodriguez, Pablo” <pablo.rodriguez@parl.gc.ca>,
“Lametti, David” <david.lametti@parl.gc.ca>,
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An open letter to Premier John Horgan of British Columbia

An open letter to Premier John Horgan of British Columbia   

12th January 2018

 

 Premiere Horgan.

 

 

A few years ago, I attended a screening of a movie called “Gasland” at the Edward Milne Community School in Sooke, BC and you were in attendance.

 

After the movie you spoke ardently and vehemently against fracking, announcing how you intended to fight it happening in BC.

 

Whatever happened to you that you could change so radically in such a short time?   Did your promise of that evening mean anything at all to you or were you just courting those in attendance for the viewing? 

 

During the previous regime I asked Rich Coleman numerous times to tell me where the water for the Petronas LNG plan was to come from and of course, he did not reply – no surprise there.   Then we hear that the answer he should have given was from hundreds of illegal and as environmentally unsafe dams as the infamous Mount Polley Mine tailings pond dam were being erected on almost every body of moving water in northern BC.   Are they still up?  I bet so as it appears you have been drinking the Petronas cool aid even after they pulled out claiming it didn’t make business sense to continue.  What makes LNG Canada think they can do what Petronas decided not to do, and I noticed that in announcing the joint venture between Shell, PetroChina Company, Korea Gas Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation, Andy Calitz, CEO of LNG Canada, said the consortium would work closely with the provincial and federal governments but made absolutelyno mention of even considering the people of BC either aboriginal or settlers.

 

Of course not, we do not matter do we, Mr Horgan?

 

We are very used to BC politicians lying to us, manipulating us and flat out ignoring our wishes for decades, but particularly during the dictatorship of the Libertarian/Conservative government which you just replaced.

 

The vast majority of people in BC believed that you would be different.   How wrong we were!

 

Of course, we were happy that you asked the BCUC to hold public hearings on the Site “C” fiasco, and I was one of the presenters at the Victoria meeting.    Of all those who presented whilst I was there only three presenters who argued that this unnecessary and overpriced dam should proceed to completion. It was clear that they were representatives of the construction companies and therefore financially biased.

 

I read the reports from the BCUC and as they were not asked to make a clear recommendation they did not, but it was very clear to me that they and the vast majority of presenters thought this was a mistake from the start and should be scrapped as soon as possible to save billions of dollars being spent for an unneeded and yet limited amount of Hydroelectric power.

 

You have with your decision pandered to the corporate interests over the interests of the people of BC, put BC Hydro on a par with all those crooked power companies in the SE of the US where billions of dollars are being charged to their customers for power plants that have not been built and will generate no electricity.   Just as with BC Hydro future usage is being charged for now, and when that is gone without the increase in usage and no extra hydro available from an incomplete dam we can bet that you will approve yet more rate hikes to pay for a price overrunning and way behind schedule dam.  

 

This is not the way to start to mend BC from the years of BC Liberal (Libertarian) destruction Mr Horgan.

 

So, Mr Horgan, what price truth and honesty?   What is the value of your word and what makes you any different from the infamous Christy Clark who so diligently continued Gordon Campbell’s intentions to destroy BC by giving away all our carefully crafted commons to private enterprise?

 

I have difficulty in believing anything you have said recently as you have proved that you do not represent the people of BC.   I would like to think we could go back to the polls very soon, however, I happen to think that neither Rich Coleman or Andrew Weaver are any more interested in what the people of BC want to do with our once beautiful province than are you.   

What a mess.

 

Jeremy Arney

PO Box 52008, 

RPO Beacon

Sidney, BC

V8L5V9

250-216-5400

 

 

Actions, not words, are the ultimate results of leadership.

Bill Owens

 

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill

 

As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever:

Clarence Darrow

Welcome to 2018.

So what was all that stuff about 150 years of Canada last year anyway?

 The politicians from four separate settler sections (provinces?) banded together and formed a corporation called Canada with the permission of the British monarch in 1867. 

 What?  Is that what really happened?

 So the politicians of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia figured out a way to fleece their people of more money through a different level of government taxation.   Did the people of those 4 “provinces” have a say in this?  Was there a referendum of any kind?   What part did the indigenous people of those areas have to say about this development of their traditional territory, or were they so subdued by the invading settlers and soo sick from introduced sicknesses that they didn’t understand what was happening?  What about the Royal Proclamation of 1763?

 Thus the corporation of Canada was formed, subject to the whims of the British parliament and their monarch.   Who actually owns that corporation now?   We know for sure that it is not the people of Canada, however, we are responsible for all the debts that this corporation accumulates. Has this changed at all in the last 150 years?  No, just more provinces assimilated thereby creating a larger tax base for the quasi-federal government which it can hardly be claimed was or is today totally legitimate.

 At what stage in those 150 years were the people of the expanding Canada asked if that was what they wanted?   Even today our dysfunctional federal government asks for opinions and then ignores them as if they were not made.  There has been talk about sovereignty, but I would argue that since our politicians swear allegiance to the monarch of a foreign country we are hardly a sovereign nation.  It would perhaps be more realistic to swear that allegiance to the Bank of International Settlements, an offspring of the IMF, which in fact own us lock stock and barrel through our national debt to them.   Or perhaps they should swear allegiance to the Pope as I understand that Canada still tithes to the Vatican, or maybe the State of Israel which tells us who to like, approve of, fight or even criticise (or not) and our politicians pay much more attention to them and their wishes than they do to the people of Canada.   The thought of our politicians swearing allegiance to the people of Canada is of course sacrilege to them.

 When did we the people of Canada ever agree to this?  When were we ever asked? And please don’t say that we give our approval every 4/5 years through an election and that we are a democracy.   A democracy means the people have a say and that does not happen in Canada as our so-called representatives simply do what they are told by their party caucuses (read leaders) or they will lose their jobs. Freedom to actually represent those who elected them does not exist with any real hope for a future in Canadian politics.

Did we consent to this treachery?  I know I did not.   Where is the mandate our politicians received from the people of Canada to do this? Did your MP ask you for your approval on this? When was a referendum held to give MPs that mandate to represent a dictator to you rather than you to a legitimate parliament? 

 When did we agree that our federal politicians should swear allegiance to a foreign monarch?

 Does my dissent on anything get listened to by our representatives? No it does not as they were and still are busy lining their future pockets with corporate board seats when they are thrown out of power to pay attention to any of the people.  Christy Clark of BC is a prime example of this.  Once she knew she could not form a government she could not wait to get out of politics and start getting her rewards for her part in the destruction of BC, started by Gordon Campbell, and who knows how much he has made, maybe as much as Mulroney with his FTA give ways.

 

 

Are we:

Still really a Dominion under the British monarch’s control?

A corporation listed on the stock markets?

A subsidiary of the BIS?

A lackey to Israel, the Vatican and Washington?

Or just another country without a people ratified constitution?  

OR maybe all the above.

What we do know we are not is a democratic country with a functional government working for us as the people of Canada.

 Recently in BC there was hope that a new premier would finally start doing things for the people of BC, and yet again our hopes have been crushed as he is binding our great grandchildren to years of indebtedness through a dam we do not want or need but the corporations of the world do.  It is amazing that once Horgan gave the approval to continue the Site C how quickly corporations around the globe jumped on board to take a piece of this pie, and no one (especially our politicians) is really objecting. 

Question:  Who is really paying for this dam?

 Clearly, those we elect have no desire to represent us, but every intention to do what they can to line their pockets at our expense and the whole thing is a sham.   Why are we still allowing this to happen?   Are we scared that we will be personally attacked by our national rent-a-cops (RCMP)? Are we scared that our “benefits”, paid for by our own labour, will be taken away?  Or are we really scared by the thought of freedom from tyranny?  Or perhaps we are still enamoured with the concept of “things” on the “never-never” scheme as we used to call it when I was still in England.   “Things” that show we are as good as the Joneses or Trudeaus, and yet just as useless.

 Back in the 1200s things got soo bad in England that the Magna Carta came into being to slap King John down;  the landowners of that time have been replaced by the corporations of today which have no compunction in owning a king or two. Maybe we need a peoples’ BC Magna Carta to take the new “King John” and his masters down now. 

 Maybe these last slaps in the face by Horgan will awaken the people of BC to just what we can be without puppets such as he.  Party politics of today doesn’t work for the people; both the National Party of Canada and the Canadian Action Party which wanted to work for the people, not big power were destroyed showing that people parties as such do not work either in today’s corporate political climate. So forget the BC “parties”; develop and support and vote for local independents in the next election, and maybe create a separate country called British Columbia, answerable only to the people of BC and free from the Ottawa shenanigans and dictates of very doubtful legality and free from corporate plundering. Let’s work with our First peoples here in BC to create a real, free and democratic country for all of British Columbia.

Food for thought?

Jeremy