Canadian hypocrisy and double standards in South and Central America on full display

Update: Since this was first published there has been a military coup in Bolivia that predictably and shamefully Canada has immediately backed. 

Canada's total hypocrisy and double standards in South and Central America are on full display, again, after the profoundly cynical Trudeau government and Global Affairs Canada stated on Tuesday that they would not recognize the Bolivian election results.


Leftist Evo Morales won the Presidential elections in the first round with over 47% of the vote. Bolivia's election laws allow for a first round win by a candidate even with less than 50% of the vote as long as they get over 40% and also lead their closest competitor by over 10% which Morales did.

Both Morales and others warned in advance of the elections that the United States and its imperialist allies were planning a coup should the left win the elections. It would seem that sock puppet Canada is stepping up to play its part.

While Trudeau and Canada are speaking out on Bolivia -- despite the fact the Bolivians are allowing an OAS audit of the election results to proceed -- why not take a look at events in the region that they have not spoken up about.

- Canada recognized the results of the elections in Brazil that saw fascist Jair Bolsonaro take the Presidency despite the fact that allies of Bolsonaro had imprisoned his main potential opponent -- leftist former President Lula da Silva (popularly known as Lula) -- on trumped up corruption charges. The process leading to Lula's jailing was totally rigged. Canada has not questioned Bolsonaro's legitimacy in anyway. In fact you see can a picture of Trudeau and Bolsonaro warmly greeting each other above.

- Since the eruption of protests against a transit fare hike that transformed into general strikes and mass demonstrations against neo-liberalism and inequality in Chile generally, the Chilean government has imposed curfews and martial law with the military patrolling the streets in a disturbing echo of the Pinochet era. Hundreds of people have been arrested, hundreds more injured or shot, at least 20 killed and there are widespread reports of torture, sexual assault and rape by the Chilean military and police. Not a peep from Canada. In fact Trudeau had a pleasant chat with the Chilean President on Tuesday.

- After betraying his promise to continue with his predecessor's leftist agenda, Ecuadoran President Lenín Moreno adopted a harsh austerity regime in exchange for IMF loans and began to intimidate, harass and arrest some of his former allies. A mass protest movement against these moves led by Indigenous peoples in early October has forced Moreno to back down, at least for now. During these protests Ecuador imposed martial law, and police violence and brutality led to the deaths of at least seven people, the wounding of at least 1,300, the arrests of at least 1,100 and the imposition of a 24 hour curfew in the capital. Canada said nothing.

- Honduras saw a military coup in 2009 that ousted the democratically elected government of President Manuel Zelaya. Since then a series of clearly fraudulent elections have ensured that right wing, pro-American and pro-business governments have remained in power including a sham election in 2017 that saw the "victory" of  President Juan Orlando Hernández. Canada?:

“Canada has remained a steadfast ally to the [post-coup] regime,” Tyler Shipley, professor at Humber College and author of the book Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras, says. “Canada helped the coup government consolidate its power, and worked diplomatically to reintegrate the country into the OAS after they were kicked out of the organization. Canada was also one of the first to recognize the election in 2009 after the coup.”

This support began with the Harper government and continues under Trudeau and Foreign Minister Freeland.

According to Shipley "No country – save perhaps the United States – did more to facilitate the rise of the Honduran dictatorship than Canada" and "Canadians who believe that their country is a good citizen of the world would do well to take a closer look at the nightmare in Honduras. After all, it is a nightmare Canada has helped create."

- In Haiti there have been months of mass protests against President Jovenel Moïse.  "Police have killed dozens of demonstrators since anti-corruption protests began last year. In the worst documented case, the UN confirmed the Haitian government’s culpability in a terrible massacre of up to 71 civilians in the impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline in mid-November 2018." And yet continued support for Moise by Canada led to the publication of an Open Letter signed by David Suzuki, Roger Waters, Linda Mcgaig, Amir Khadir, Will Prosper, Tariq Ali, Yann Martel, Maude Barlow, Sid Ryan, John Clarke and more than 100 other writers, musicians, activists and professors demanding that this stop.

It is perfectly clear that when Trudeau, Freeland and the Canadian government prattle on about "freedom" and "democracy" they are only talking about countries where leftist governments win elections such as Venezuela and Bolivia. Their concern for "freedom" is the freedom of big business and corporate interests to run South and Central American countries on behalf of international capital and their version of "democracy" are election results, fair or otherwise, that install governments that will reinforce this.

Mass Protests in Chile, Honduras, Ecuador and Catalonia, Bolivia Votes & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos October 14 - 20

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of October 14 - 20.

For those interested in news and developments in the Canadian election this will be covered in a separate weekly roundup the last of which this past Saturday was: Coalitions, Rewriting Constitutional History, NDP Spike or Surge and more -- The Left Chapter Canadian Election Round-up Week Six

1) Chile: President Piñera Revokes Santiago Subway Fare Hike

Telesur

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera has announced that the Santiago subway fare increase that went into effect last Monday, has been revoked after a week of tense protests by students and subway users against the price hike.

2) Soldiers Patrol Streets of Chile Amid State of Emergency

Telesur

Armed soldiers are patrolling the streets of Santiago Saturday after President Sebastian Piñera decreed a state of emergency to contain citizen protests against increased subway fares.

Horrifying scenes from Chile 

3) Chilean President Announces State of Emergency

Telesur

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announces Friday night a state of emergency for the provinces of Santiago and Chacabuco.

4) Chile students’ mass fare-dodging expands into city-wide protest

John Bartlett, The Guardian 

Thousands of school and university students have joined a mass fare-dodging protest in Chile, flooding into metro stations in the country’s capital to vault turnstiles and vandalise equipment amid simmering unrest over the rising cost of living.

5) Ecuador: victory for the popular protest

Jonathan Maunders, Counterfire 

On Monday, in a huge victory for protesters and the Ecuadorian people, the country’s government agreed to reinstate fuel subsidies.

6) Pro-Democracy Movement in Haiti Swells Despite Lethal Police Violence

Frances Madeson, Truthout

It’s getting hard not to notice that U.S. corporate media is covering pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong far more than pro-democracy forces in the Caribbean. It can be challenging to catch up on significant events in a place that’s a mere two-hour flight from Miami; with a few exceptions, the media is largely failing Haiti right now.



7) Third night of violence in Barcelona after jailing of Catalan separatists

Stephen Burgen and Sam Jones, The Guardian 

Street violence escalated in Barcelona late on Wednesday, as protesters set cars on fire and threw acid at police officers in a third night of unrest following the imprisonment this week of nine pro-independence leaders for their roles in the failed 2017 push for regional independence.

8) Europe must condemn the repression of the Catalans

Iain Macwhirter, The Herald 

The democratically-elected Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, is in Belgium fighting attempts by the Madrid state to extradite him. Nine Catalan politicians and independence activists have been sentenced in Madrid to between nine and 13 years for the archaic crimes of sedition and disobedience. The government of Catalonia, elected in a free and fair election, has been suppressed.

9) Catalonia: Thousands Join Pro-Independence National Strike

Telesur

Catalonia was completely paralyzed on Friday as a result of a general strike called on by the Intersindical-CSC and Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya (IAC) unions to protest against the prison sentence of nine pro-independence leaders.

10) Catalonia: Police Repress Protesters During Overnight Demos

Telesur 

After a nationwide strike full of marches, protests and barricades, Barcelona woke up on Saturday with a strong smell of charred objects after a night in which the riot police harshly repressed pro-independence activists and left over 180 people injured and 300 arrested.

11) Honduras: Protests Intensify Against President Hernandez

Telesur 

Hondurans on Friday took to the streets to demand the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) after the New York Federal Court found his brother, Tony Hernandez, guilty on charges of drug trafficking, use of weapons and lying to authorities.

12) Wide-Scale Anti-Gov't Protests Continue Across Lebanon

Telesur 

The Lebanese people ignored Prime Minister Saad Hariri's 72-hour-long pledge Friday to take to the streets for the third straight day of protests against government corruption.

13) Snakes, rats, bedbugs, abuse. Complaints filed by Mexican migrant workers expose underside of Canada’s seasonal agriculture program

Sara Mojtehedzadeh, The Toronto Star

14) Texas officer who fatally shot woman in her home arrested on murder charges

Bill Hutchinson and Marcus Moore, ABC News

The police officer who fatally shot a Fort Worth, Texas, woman in her home while answering a call for a welfare check has been arrested on murder charges. The charge comes after the officer abruptly resigned on Monday just before he was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies, the police chief said.

15) Botham Jean, Then Atatiana Jefferson: Outrage in Texas as Police Kill Another Black Resident at Home

Democracy Now

A white police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, has been arrested and charged with murder, after he shot and killed an African-American woman who was inside her own home. Officer Aaron Dean was responding to a non-emergency call for a wellness check after a neighbor had called the Fort Worth police to report that 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson’s front door was open at around 2:30 in the morning on Saturday. Soon after the officers arrived, Dean, who never identified himself to be a police officer, shouted through Jefferson’s bedroom window to put her hands up, and then immediately opened fire, killing her. Minutes before the shooting, Jefferson had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, who witnessed the shooting but was not physically injured. Atatiana Jefferson is the seventh person since June who has been killed by one of the police department’s officers. From Dallas, we speak with Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing the family of Atatiana Jefferson.

16) Sudan communists call for mass protest to fulfil revolution’s goals

Middle East Monitor 

The Sudanese Communist Party on Sunday called for a million man protest on 21 October in an effort to fulfil the goals of the revolution, Anadolu reported.

17) Coca-Cola’s same-sex couple ads are ‘mentally, emotionally and morally damaging’, Hungarian authorities rule

Nick Duffy, Pink News

Coca-Cola has reportedly been issued a fine by regulators in Hungary over an ad campaign featuring same-sex couples.

18) Extinction Rebellion to fight ban on protesting in London in court

Matthew Taylor, Vikram Dodd, Jessica Murray and Damien Gayle, The Guardian 

Extinction Rebellion has said it will fight a ban on activists protesting in London in court, as the capital’s mayor, a key ally of the police, distanced himself from the crackdown.

19) Londoners defy the XR ban to defend the right to protest

Chris Nineham, Counterfire 

Londoners have responded very strongly to the outrageous Metropolitan police ban on XR protests. Less than 18 hours after it was announced, thousands of people flocked to a lunchtime protest in Trafalgar Square called by Extinction Rebellion against the ban. People from all over the South East joined the protests and they included health workers, bus drivers, students and a number of different campaigning groups including Stop the War, Grenfell campaigners, War on Want and the People's Assembly.

20) Five killed in Kashmir's deadliest day since losing special status

Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian 

Five people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, thought to be the deadliest day in the region since it was stripped of its autonomy this summer.

21) Amazon Is Spending Big to Oust Seattle’s Socialist Council Member

 Hallie Golden, The Nation 

Last month Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant was the lone woman of color on stage alongside her rival City Council candidate Egan Orion and three middle-aged white male moderators from local news stations. It took Sawant just two sentences to steer the debate to the issue at the center of her reelection campaign: the evils of big corporations. Six weeks from election day, Orion, a self-described progressive liberal, had highlighted the importance of bringing people together. Sawant did not disagree, but replied, “The crucial question is, unity and collaboration and coalitions with whom?” “My opponent is the poster child for big business,” she went on. “He has more corporate money than any candidate in Seattle City Council history. And we know what corporations like Amazon and the Chamber of Commerce are trying to do. They’re trying to flip City Hall to the right and reverse our progressive victories.”

22) 'Go back to work': outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

Michael Sainato, The Guardian

In September, Billy Foister, a 48-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, died after a heart attack at work. According to his brother, an Amazon human resources representative informed him at the hospital that Billy had lain on the floor for 20 minutes before receiving treatment from Amazon’s internal safety responders.

23) RESPONSE TO THE TORONTO SUN & SUE-ANN LEVY’S CEASE AND DESIST LETTER

A.J. Withers for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

Last week, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) put up posters in the city’s downtown east neighbourhood calling Sue Ann Levy – Toronto Sun’s columnist – a “bigot.” The posters were a response to a series of articles in which Levy disparages homeless people at Dundas and Sherbourne and agitates against critical services they rely on. The posters depict a photo of Levy, made to look somewhat like a mug shot, with the word “bigot” underneath. The imagery follows the tradition of satirical protest posters that name the offences of public figures. The posters describe Levy’s bigotry and encourage readers to “Build Inclusive Communities” and “Say yes to services, no to bigots.”

24) Chicago teachers say they will go on strike. They are demanding affordable housing for students.

Kim Bellware, The Washington Post

Teachers in the third-largest U.S. school district are expected to go on strike Thursday for the first time in seven years after contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and city officials hit a stalemate Tuesday night. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday morning that classes at Chicago public schools will be canceled in anticipation of the strike, which was made official Wednesday evening.

25) Street checks permanently banned in N.S. after review calls them illegal

Carolyn Ray · CBC News 

Nova Scotia's justice minister says he will permanently ban street checks after a legal opinion co-authored by a former top judge found the Halifax police practice, which disproportionately targeted black males, is illegal.



26) Bolivia’s VP Talks Elections and Opposition Failures

Telesur

Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera gave an interview to Nodal in which he talked about the upcoming Oct. 20 elections and the prospects for the country’s leftist President Evo Morales. Garcia Linera also addressed the failure of the right-wing opposition to articulate a credible alternative program.

27) 'We’ll Beat The Neoliberals': Evo Morales Closes Campaign

Telesur

Evo Morales’ ‘Movement Towards Socialism’ party marked the official close of their election campaign on Wednesday afternoon. The event was held in the overwhelmingly Indigenous city of El Alto, at which Morales asked for five more years to continue Bolivia’s path to development and to ‘beat the neoliberals’. The presidential elections will be held on Sunday.

28) Live Updates: Bolivians Head to Polls in Key Election

Telesur

Bolivians will vote in an election on Sunday to decide whether to extend the rule of President Evo Morales to nearly two decades amid a rise in right-wing governments in the region who have been facing major protests in neighboring Chile, Ecuador and Argentina over harsh austerity measures. 

29) Nunavut’s justice minister promises highest minimum wage in Canada

Elaine Anselmi, Nunatsiaq News

Nunavut residents can expect to a boost to the territory’s minimum wage to help match the territory’s high cost of living.

30) Another Journalist Killed in Colombia, Gov't Remains Silent

Telesur

In Colombia, journalist and broadcaster Javier Cordoba Chaguendo was killed by a hitman while conducting a music program at a community radio station in Tumaco, Nariño, on the border with Ecuador.

31) Colombia: Three Indigenous Leaders Killed by Hitmen

Telesur

Colombian human rights defender Alirio Uribe Muñoz on Thursday announced that three indigenous leaders were killed, which means that 234 social activists have been killed since President Ivan Duque took office on August 7, 2018.

32) Ontario’s financial watchdog says deficit ‘was never $15 billion’ as Doug Ford previously claimed 

Travis Dhanraj, Global News

Peter Weltman, Ontario’s financial accountability officer, says the province recorded an actual deficit in 2018-19 of $7.4 billion.

33) Media Alarmed by Imaginary US Pullout From Syria

Gary Shupak, FAIR

President Donald Trump’s modification of the US’s Syria policy has generated a torrent of confusion, so it’s worth reviewing the record.

34) Turkey Agrees with US To Pause Syria Attack, Kurds To Speak Soon

Telesur

Turkey agreed on Thursday to pause its five-day offensive on Syria to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a "safe zone" that Ankara had sought to capture in a deal hailed by the Trump administration and Turkey as a complete victory.

35) UN says Turkey could be responsible for summary executions of Kurdish fighters, female politician

Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters 

Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions of an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

36) Turkey offensive in Syria displaces 160,000 civilians as risk of 'unintended release' of Islamic State fighters grows

Japan News

The Turkish military offensive in Syria has displaced at least 160,000 civilians, the U.N. secretary general said Monday in a statement urging an “immediate de-escalation.”

37) Ships are illegally dumping plastic trash at sea, study suggests


Emily Chung · CBC News

Thousands of plastic drink bottles are washing up on a remote, uninhabited island in the South Atlantic, and researchers say they're evidence of illegal dumping from cargo ships.

38) Top investment banks provide billions to expand fossil fuel industry

Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian 

The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.

39) How well has China’s ultra low-emissions policy worked?

Cathleen O'Grady, Ars Technica

A paper published in Nature Energy last week analyzed data from pollution monitoring systems and found dramatic changes. According to the monitoring data, China's emissions of some common air pollutants dropped by 65% to 72% in just three years.

40) Venezuela wins seat on U.N. rights council despite U.S. opposition

 Michelle Nichols, Reuters

Venezuela was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday with 105 votes and a round of applause, despite fierce lobbying by the United States and rights groups, and the late entry of Costa Rica as competition.

41) Venezuela Denies Guatemalan President-Elect Entrance, Congratulates Ecuadorian People on IMF Defeat

Paul Dobson, Venezuela Analysis

Venezuela’s authorities denied Guatemala’s president-elect entrance at Caracas’ Simon Bolivar International Airport on Saturday.

42) Brexit Delays Are Fueling a Dangerous Rage Among Britain's Far Right

Tim Hume, Vice News

When Britain’s Supreme Court ruled Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament illegal last month, many hailed it as a victory for democracy.

Freeland 'America First', Israeli Apartheid, Climate Emergency & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 30 - July 7

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.



This list covers the week of June 30 - July 7.

1) SAN FRANCISCO IS PAYING FOR JAMAL TRULOVE’S WRONGFUL CONVICTION. WILL KAMALA HARRIS?

Kyle C. Barry, The Appeal 

Police and prosecutors framed a father of four in a 2007 murder case with local and national political implications.

2) Uber co-founder buys record-breaking LA mansion for $72.5m as drivers fight for wages

Sam Levin, The Guardian 

Two massive luxury real estate deals in Los Angeles have shone a harsh light on the wealth gap in a region where tens of thousands of people live on the streets while mansions the size of football fields sell for more than $100m.

3) US Activist Scott Warren To Be Retried in Helping Migrants Case

Telesur

United States (U.S.) activist and member of the humanitarian group "No More Deaths", Scott Warren will be retried after a jury was unable to agree on a verdict for charges for helping migrants at the border with Mexico, U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday.

4) MEDIA FRAME: A ‘WAR ON COPS’ NARRATIVE WITHOUT EVIDENCE

Adam H. Johnson, The Appeal

An ABC News report last week on a “multi-year” trend of violence targeting the police highlights how easily the “war on cops” narrative sneaks into mainstream media with thin sourcing and little fact-checking.

5) Frustration and confusion mark Parkdale-High Park NDP nomination

Matt Fodor, Now Magazine

It was a stressful, painful and humiliating experience for the mostly African immigrants who came to support Saron Gebresellassi and participate in the Canadian political process for the first time.



6) The NDP should allow Rana Zaman to run

Judy Haiven, The Nova Scotia Advocate 

Just 4 months before the 2019 federal election, the NDP is has effectively blocked two women of colour from running under its banner.

7) Honduran Police Repress Protesting Teachers with Teargas

Telesur

Teachers and students are renewing round of protests across the country in favor of public healthcare and education services on Thursday and Friday amid police violence and repression, reported local media.

8) Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald

Dom Phillips, The Guardian

Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

9) Enforcer of Philippines War on Drugs Defends Killing a Toddler: “Shit Happens”

David Gilbert, Vice News

The man responsible for conducting Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs has defended the killing of a three-year-old girl during a drugs raid by saying “shit happens.”

10) In Rural Areas, Homeless People Are Harder To Find — And To Help

Mary Meehan, NPR

"A lot of people in the world don't realize it, but they are one paycheck away from being out here with us"

11) China Condemns Western ‘Hypocrisy’ on Hong Kong

Telesur

China has labeled western criticisms over Hong Kong protests as ‘hypocritical’, whilst the city’s leader Carrie Lam condemned the 'extremely violent' protests that saw demonstrators break into the Legislative Council and raise the former British colonial flag.

12) DSA/Jacobin/Haymarket-sponsored ‘Socialism’ conference features US gov-funded regime-change activists

Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone

The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs.

13) UK Acting With 'Typical Imperialist Arrogance' On Iran's Tanker Seizure - Communist Party

Umer Jamshaid, Urdu Point

Thursday's interception and seizure of the Iranian oil tanker, Grace 1, by the UK Royal Marines constitutes a "reckless" provocation at a time of escalating tensions in the middle East and looks like an act of "typical UK imperialist arrogance," Robert Griffiths, the general-secretary of the UK Communist Party, told Sputnik on Friday.

14) Madrid threatens migrant rescue ship with massive fines

Alejandro López, WSWS

The acting Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is threatening the migrant rescue charity boat Proactiva Open Arms with huge fines if it continues rescuing migrants. It is part of the mounting assault on migrants throughout the world by capitalist governments, which, facing mounting domestic political opposition, are promoting nationalism and xenophobia.

15) Syriza betrayed its principles – and the Greek people. Its days are numbered

Alexander Kazamias, The Guardian

Alexis Tsipras’s party promised to fight EU-imposed austerity, but instead embraced it. Sunday’s polls will punish them.

16) Corbyn wishes Amazon 'many happy tax returns' on its 25th anniversary

Mark Sweney, The Guardian 

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has sent a barbed birthday card to Jeff Bezos to mark Amazon’s 25th anniversary, wishing the company “many happy tax returns” and demanding it pays more UK tax, pays its staff better and improves working conditions.

17) Alberta to spend $2.5M on public inquiry into 'foreign-funded special interests'

Drew Anderson · CBC News

"It's basically kind of a show trial to try and intimidate critics and people concerned about climate change into silence."

18) The living hell of young girls enslaved in Bangladesh's brothels

Corinne Redfern, The Guardian

Sold by traffickers, trapped for years and raped many times a day … this is the life of tens of thousands of underage girls in Bangladesh. We hear their stories.

19) FBI’S LENIENCY TOWARD BORDER VIGILANTE CONTRASTS WITH HARSH TREATMENT OF “BLACK IDENTITY EXTREMIST”

Trevor Aaronson, The Intercept

While militia leader Larry Hopkins remained free to terrorize immigrants, Christopher Daniels was jailed for months, losing his home and his job.

20) Israeli government minister takes credit for 27 U.S. states passing anti-BDS laws

 Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss

A leading Israeli government minister takes credit for 27 U.S. states passing laws aimed at curbing citizens’ advocacy for BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targeting Israel.

21) Palestinian Authority thought compliance would lead to independence, but it only strengthened Israel’s domination

Noura Erakat, Mondoweiss

The following is an excerpt from Noura Erakat’s new book Justice For Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. In in Erakat outlines how the Palestinian Authority’s “illusory quest” for statehood “has shaped the Palestinian leadership’s commitment to U.S. tutelage and its reticence to embark on a bolder course based on a politics of resistance.”

22) Talib Kweli’s removal from festival lineup is part of anti-Palestinian censorship trend

Open Letter, The Guardian

103 signatories including Peter Gabriel, Naomi Klein and Boots Riley condemn attempts in Germany to impose political conditions on artists who support Palestinian rights.

23) Israel Might Apologize to Ethiopians but Will Keep Shooting at Unarmed Gazans

Gideon Levy, Haaretz

Israel’s ludicrous attempt to create islands of morality and equality in a sea of racism and violence has once again blown up in its face.

24) Sports-washing and the Toronto Raptors

Marion Kawas, Mondoweiss

If you’re a basketball fan, and also a supporter of justice for Palestine, then you have probably heard about the controversy surrounding the offer of a proposed trip to Israel for the new NBA champs the Toronto Raptors, from one of their co-owners Larry Tanenbaum.

25) Canada adopts Israel lobby’s contested definition of anti-Semitism

Nora Barrows-Friedman, Canadian Dimension

Canada has announced that it will formally adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that could characterize Palestinian rights campaigning as anti-Jewish bigotry.

26) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Other Democrats Reject “Staged” Tour of Migrant Detention Facilities

Robert Mackey, The Intercept

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ resisted the efforts of Customs and Border Protection officials to prevent her from speaking directly to migrants detained in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, forcing her way into a cell filled with women during a congressional delegation visit.

27) Border Patrol Agents Have a Secret Facebook Group, Where Racism and Sexism Prevail

Abigail Weinberg, Mother Jones

Current and former Border Patrol agents, who are responsible in part for detaining people who enter the US illegally, have displayed shocking callousness toward immigrants and women in a secret Facebook page with roughly 9,500 members.

28) 'Help': Photos show hundreds of migrants squashed into cells, appealing for assistance

Julia Ainsley and Annie Rose Ramos, NBC News

Government investigators have identified poor conditions in another sector of the southern border, publishing graphic photos showing extreme overcrowding in Rio Grande Valley migrant facilities and finding that children there did not have access to showers and had to sleep on concrete floors.

29) ‘Canada Adopts America First Foreign Policy,’ US State Dept boasted in 2017, with appointment of FM Chrystia Freeland

Ben Norton, The Grayzone

The US embassy in Ottawa boasted in a March 2017 memo, “Canada Adopts ‘America First’ Foreign Policy,” just after PM Trudeau appointed hard-line hawk Chrystia Freeland as foreign minister.

Venezuelans tell Canada to lift the economic blockade.



30) President Maduro Ratifies Commitment to Dialogue in Norway

Telesur 

The Venezuelan president said that his government is keeping open all doors for political dialogue with the opposition and said that next week there will be good news.

31) Why the US Puppet President of Venezuela is Toast

Roger Harris, Counter Punch

Even the corporate media are losing enthusiasm for the US government’s ploy to replace the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela with the US-anointed security asset Juan Guaidó. Reuters reports in a July 1 article, “Disappointed Venezuelans lose patience with Guaidó as Maduro hangs on,” that the US-backed “military uprising” has “unraveled.” A critical reading of the article explains why.

32) 'Fundamentally Flawed': UN Expert on Bachelet Venezuela Report

Telesur

Former consultant for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the one Bachelet now leads, says her report is 'unfortunately unbalanced', calls for lifting sanctions.

33) Eternal gratitude for Cuban blood shed to win Angola’s independence

Granma

As part of his official visit to the island, Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço met with Cuban combatants who fought in his country’s independence struggle, recalling those times.

34) Alaska: temperatures rival Miami amid 'unprecedented' heatwave

Edward Helmore, The Guardian 

Alaska’s temperatures soared to new highs on the Fourth of July as the state bisected by the Arctic Circle endures a heatwave that has shattered records in some cities.

35) India staring at a water apocalypse

Saikat Datta, Asia Times

A combination of climate change, bad policies and political apathy is steadily pushing India into a catastrophic water crisis that threatens stability in South Asia.

36) Amazon destruction accelerates 60% to one and a half soccer fields every minute

Vasco Cotovio, CNN

Amazon deforestation accelerated more than 60% in June over the same period last year, in what environmentalists say is a sign that the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro are starting to take effect.

37) Welcome to the fastest-heating place on Earth

Jonathan Watts, The Guardian 

In the world’s northernmost town, temperatures have risen by 4C, devastating homes, wildlife and even the cemetery. Will the rest of the planet heed its warning?

38) June was hottest ever recorded on Earth, European satellite agency announces

Conrad Duncan, The Independent 

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded, the EU‘s satellite agency has announced.

See also: Europe Burns, MMIWG, Bill 21 & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 23 - 30

Europe Burns, MMIWG, Bill 21 & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 23 - 30

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.


This list covers the week of June 23 - 30.


1) 'Hell is coming': week-long heatwave begins across Europe

Jon Henley, The Guardian 

Authorities have urged children and older people to stay indoors and issued severe warnings against dehydration and heatstroke as an unprecedented week-long heatwave begins its advance across continental Europe.

2) It's so hot in Spain that manure self-ignited, sparking a 10,000-acre wildfire

Ivana Kottasová, CNN

Firefighters in Spain are battling a major wildfire that probably started after a heap of manure self-ignited amid the intense European heat wave.

3) France records all-time highest temperature of 45.9C

Jon Henley, Angelique Chrisafis, and Sam Jones, The Guardian 

France recorded temperatures nearly two degrees higher than its previous record and firefighters continued to battle historic wildfires in Spain as much of western Europe remained in the grip of an extreme early-summer heatwave on Friday.

4) Europe has had five 500-year summers in 15 years. And now this.

Stephen Leahy, National Geographic 

Another deadly heat wave has Europe in its sweaty grip this week. Record temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in parts of France, Germany, Poland and Spain, with hotter days to come. The same thing happened last year—record-breaking heat was responsible for 700 deaths in Sweden and more than 250 in Denmark, countries that have never needed air conditioning before this new era of climate-change-driven extreme events.

5) On 'Hottest Day in History of France,' World Told 'Do Not Look Away' as Police Tear-Gas Climate Campaigners in Paris

Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

French riot police tear-gassed climate protesters in Paris on Friday as the county sweltered under record heat.

6) US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must

Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher and Patrick Bigger, The Conversation 

The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.

7) B.C. First Nation has change of heart, now opposes Trans Mountain pipeline project

Angela Sterritt · CBC News

A First Nation that was once in full support of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is now standing in opposition, at least until it feels confident the project won't destroy one of their ancient villages.

8) Economist Marc Lee dispenses with "big lie" that LNG will help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions

Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight 

Late last week, Green MP Paul Manly drew attention to the Liberal government's wish to obtain carbon credits for shipping liquefied natural gas out of the country.

10) Twerps, the Apocalypse, Pipelines and Vonnegut

Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee

“Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

11) Canadian Communist leader Rowley hits Trudeau Liberals’ OK of pipeline

Mark Gruenberg, People's World

Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to build a controversial pipeline to transport Alberta’s heavy, polluting tar sands oil to a port on the British Columbia coast is a top broken promise to the Canadian people, Communist Party of Canada leader Liz Rowley says.

12) Swept Away

Katie Daubs, The Toronto Star 

The 85-year-old wasn’t home at the time, but word spread quickly, as it always does in this 149-person town. The tiles upstairs looked the same as the day they were installed, but the roof was cut clean and deposited about 100 metres away in the not-yet-frozen harbour where it sat upright before the tide took it away.

13) No Drips, No Drops: A City Of 10 Million Is Running Out Of Water

Sushmita Pathak, NPR

In India's sixth-largest city, lines for water snake around city blocks, restaurants are turning away customers and a man was killed in a brawl over water. Chennai, with a population of almost 10 million, is nearly out of water.

14) Shit Show in Toronto

Myles Hoenig, Dissident Voice

Alabama of the 50s and 60s has migrated to Toronto.  The ghost of South Africa has a consulate here. Israel’s apartheid government must be jealous over how well Toronto’s NDP runs its elections. So what the hell happened?

(Related: The optics of the Parkdale NDP's federal nomination meeting are not good)

15) Egypt rounds up prominent leftist activists, journalists

Middle East Eye 

Egyptian authorities rounded up at least five left-wing and liberal activists on Tuesday in the latest crackdown against dissent led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

16) New generation of Quebecers resists Legault's discriminatory law

Karl Nerenberg, Rabble

Today, June 24, is la Fête nationale in Quebec, what they used to call St-Jean-Baptiste Day, a holiday that has greatly evolved over the years.

17) Quebec’s ban on religious symbols will only embolden the far right

Emily Laxer, The Globe and Mail

Earlier this month, Quebec became the first jurisdiction in North America to prohibit some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job. Bill 21 – which has already been challenged in the courts – contains unprecedented monitoring and surveillance measures to enforce a ban of such symbols in positions of authority, including judges, Crown prosecutors, police officers and teachers.

18) Trouble in Paradise: the rise and fall of Germany's 'brothel king'

Hilke Lorenz, The Guardian 

Rudloff is now serving a five-year sentence for aiding and abetting trafficking. His trial laid bare the misery and abuse of women working as prostitutes at his club who, according to court documents, were treated like animals and beaten if they didn’t make enough money. His imprisonment has dismantled the idea of Germany’s “clean prostitution” industry and raised troubling questions about what lies behind the legalised, booming sex trade.

19) Why we must act to stop prostitution becoming an ordinary ‘job’

Jacci Stoyle, The Scotsman

Prostitution is not ‘empowering’ for women, it’s a miserable life of exploitation and violence.

20) How the war on drugs attacks indigenous people

Ryan Hesketh, Green Left Weekly

In an ongoing and under-publicised tragedy, indigenous peoples around the world routinely have their rights violated under the name of the global war on drugs.


21) Canada’s labour movement must take a stand against the Saudi arms deal

Simon Black and Anthony Fenton, The Conversation 

The CLC must be a voice for peace and human rights and demand that the Canadian government immediately cancel its arms deal with Saudi Arabia and use its considerable resources to co-ordinate labour movement opposition to the deal. Yemen can’t wait.

22) U.S. Communists elect new leaders to begin party’s second century

John Wojcik and C. J. Atkins, People's World 

The Communist Party USA elected two new leaders with deep connections to the labor and democratic movements as co-chairs at its 31st National Convention here on June 23. Rossana Cambron, a Mexican-American woman from Los Angeles, and Joe Sims, an African-American man from New York, were picked to lead the 100-year old party into its second century.

23) Brazil Top Court Rejects Temp Freedom for Lula, Habeas Corpus Trial Suspended

Telesur

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (SFT) rejected on Tuesday two appeals that attempted to grant freedom to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The third motion, which was the Habeas Corpus hearing initiated on December 2018, was suspended once again and rescheduled for this year’s second semester.

24) Brazilian Army Sergeant Arrested for Trafficking 39 Kilos of Cocaine on Presidential Plane

Telesur 

Spanish security forces arrested a member of President Jair Bolsonaro's military entourage at the Sevilla airport for possession of 39 kilos of cocaine in his suitcase.

25) Manitoba’s Government Said They’d Find ‘Efficiencies’ in Healthcare. Now They’re Shutting Down Emergency Rooms.

Press Progress

Nurses are burning out, working overtime and dealing with overcrowded hospitals as Manitobans await the third ER closure since the election of the province’s Progressive Conservative government.

26) Man who killed a woman when he rammed his car into Charlottesville counterprotest gets life in prison

Ellie Kaufman, Ralph Ellis and Steve Almasy, CNN

James A. Fields Jr., the man who drove into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville's "Unite the Right" rally two years ago, leaving one woman dead, was sentenced Friday to life in prison in his federal hate crimes case.

27) Honduras protests: Military police open fire on students injuring four

CNN

Honduran military police opened fire on students protesting at a university in the capital, Tegucigalpa, injuring at least four people, officials say.

28) Ugly Canadian supports status quo in original banana republic

Yves Engler

In 1901, US author O. Henry coined the term “banana republic” to describe Honduras, which was dominated by the US-based United Fruit Company. According to Wikipedia: “Typically a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling-class plutocracy, composed of the business, political and military elites of that society.”

29) Ontario Legal Aid Cuts Force Injured Workers Clinic To Lay Off Staff

Emma Paling, HuffPost

A legal clinic that serves workers injured on the job is laying off 40 per cent of its staff in the wake of cuts to legal aid made by Ontario’s government.

30) Ontario reviewing political appointments after latest accusation of nepotism

The Canadian Press

Ontario's government says it will review all its upcoming appointments to office, after three such appointments were scuttled by accusations of nepotism in less than a week.

31) Tory MPP Kinga Surma’s dad landed policy job in minister’s office: sources

Marieke Walsh, IPolitics

Ontario MPP Kinga Surma’s father scored a job in Premier Doug Ford’s government after the spring 2018 election, according to sources in the Progressive Conservative Party.

32) Ford government deliberately spread misinformation about autism program, internal review says

Caroline Alphonso and Laura Stone, The Globe and Mail

An internal review of changes to Ontario’s autism program calls for an immediate reset, saying the government purposely spread misinformation about the costs and the backlog for treatment to justify a funding model that would leave families “destitute.”

33) Doug Ford: A year of living stupidly

Bob Hepburn, The Toronto Star

Doug Ford will mark the one-year anniversary of being sworn in as Ontario’s 26th premier on June 29, a year that can only be described as a complete disaster.

34) Ford government cuts will blow $2-billion hole in municipal budgets, Moody's warns

Michael Smee · CBC News

Ontario municipalities should brace for a $2-billion shock in the decade ahead, as cuts in provincial transfers sink in, according to the credit rating service Moody's.

35) Shocking photo of drowned father and daughter highlights migrants' border peril

The Guardian 

The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding on America’s southern border has been captured in photographs showing the lifeless bodies of a Salvadoran father and his daughter who drowned as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande into Texas.

36) Ratcheting up of Iran-US tensions

Robert Bechert, Committee for a Workers' International 

The apparent last minute cancellation by Donald Trump of US military retaliation - after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone - has not significantly lessened the chances of new military clashes given the continuing tensions in that region.

37) Independent Jewish Voices Condemns NDP Removal Of Federal Candidate For Tweets Criticizing Israel

IJV

The federal New Democratic Party has removed noted Halifax activist Rana Zaman from the party’s candidacy in the Dartmouth – Cole Harbour riding, which she won on May 1 by a vote of party members. The ostensible reason for her removal is several tweets that Zaman made in August 2018 when Israeli forces were shooting thousands of unarmed Gazans during the “Great March of Return.”

38) Palestinian Gov't: US-led Bahrain Conference 'Stunning Failure'

Telesur

Palestine's refusal to attend the conference sends “a clear message to Mr. Trump and his administration that the policy of dictates, threats and coercion is no longer effective."

39) Sudan: One Protester Killed as Tens of Thousands Protest Demanding End to Army Rule

Telesur

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Khartoum Sunday demanding the military hand over power to civilians, in the largest demonstrations since a deadly security service raid on a protest camp three weeks ago which is being called as the “June 3rd massacre.”

40) Why Venezuela Is the Vietnam of Our Time

Celina della Croce, Black Agenda Report 

Hybrid warfare combines military force with “unconventional” warfare, such as covert campaigns to destabilize the economy of targeted nations.

41) Sad legacy continues of taking Indigenous children from their parents

The Guardian 

We know all too well in Canada the results of separating Indigenous children from their families without forethought or regard. Let’s not have this shameful and discriminatory practice in health care continue to add to that sad legacy.

42) Missing and murdered: Canada's genocide cover-up

Pamela Palmater, NOW Magazine

Canada’s denial of race-based genocide has allowed systemic violence against Indigenous women and girls in particular to continue in plain sight. The only question now should be what is Canada going to do about it?

43) Jesse Wente on the mainstream media's odious defence of genocide

Jesse Wente, NOW Magazine 

We have witnessed the harm the media can do. I hope, for the media’s sake and ours, that the relationship hasn’t been harmed beyond the point of reconciliation.

44) Indigenous drummers say they faced racist confrontation in Toronto park

Jamie Mauracher, Global News

A group of Indigenous women say they are “disgusted” after being yelled at for drumming in a Toronto Park.

See also: Iran Tensions, Police Misconduct, Climate Emergency & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 16 - 23

Iran Tensions, Police Misconduct, Climate Emergency & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 16 - 23

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of June 16 - 23.

1) Remember the Vincennes? The US’s Long History of Provoking Iran

Linn Washington Jr., Counterpunch 

Remember the Vincennes?

That’s the name of the U.S. Navy warship that shot down an Iranian airliner with missiles in 1988, killing all 290 people aboard that airplane.

2) Iran - unrepentant warmongers and gullible fools are at it again

Lindsey German, Counterfire 

You would think Iraq never happened. Suddenly we are told that there is intelligence to prove that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow and extremely busy channel between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. This intelligence comes from the US security services, and seems largely to consist of one grainy video of a boat removing a landmine from a ship, plus the negative assertion that only a state actor could have carried out the attack.

3) Iran shoots down US military drone to send ‘clear message’ to Trump as tensions soar

Adam Withnall & Richard Hall, The Independent 

Iran has shot down a US military drone using a surface-to-air missile, Iranian and American military officials said, amid an escalating row over alleged attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

4) Trump escalates war threats after drone shootdown over Iran

 Bill Van Auken, WSWS

US President Donald Trump authorized military strikes against Iran Thursday before unexpectedly cancelling them, the New York Times reported. The abrupt move leaves open the imminent possibility of a major new war in the Middle East with the potential to kill millions and spark a global military conflict.

(Related: Don't let the Americans lie their way into another disastrous war)

5) Belgium’s Left Breakthrough

Denis Rogatyuk, Socialist Project Bullet 

On May 27th, Europe awakened to what seemed to be like a new stage in the resurgence of the populist right and reactionary forces, and a major retreat for the radical left in the elections to the European parliament.

6) Bosses pocket Trump tax windfall as workers see job promises vanish

Michael Sainato, The Guardian 

Stephen Smith worked at an AT&T call center in Meriden, Connecticut, for over 20 years before the giant telecoms company announced it was closing the city’s three call centers in February 2019.

7) Canadian companies failed to pay billions of taxes owed, new CRA report reveals

Marco Chown Oved and Robert Cribb, The Toronto Star

Canadian corporations failed to pay between $9.4 billion and $11.4 billion in taxes in 2014, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the country's corporate "tax gap" — the difference between taxes legally owed and those collected — being released today by the Canada Revenue Agency.

8) Raptors victory: Feel-good multiculturalism masks reality of anti-Black racism in Canada

Corrie Scott, The Conversation 

During what was probably one of the most exciting and gratifying moments of his professional life, moments after the Raptors’ NBA finals victory on Thursday, a California sheriff’s deputy stopped Raptors president Masai Ujiri from walking onto the court for the Raptors’ trophy presentation. The deputy carded him and asked him for his credentials.

9) The Upcoming neo-Nazi Concert in Ukraine That No One Is Talking About

Michael Colborne, Haaretz 

Saturday will see up to 1,500 people attending a gig in Kiev headlined by notorious U.S. neo-Nazi group Blue Eyed Devils. Even an expert on the far-right music scene is shocked how open Fortress Europe is being.




10) Not on Our Side: On Bernie Sanders and Imperialism

 Doug Enaa Greene , Left Voice

Bernie Sanders presents himself as an anti-war candidate. But he has voted in favor of almost every single U.S. military intervention in the last two decades. A look at his record.

11) Biden doubles down on segregationist comments, says critics like Cory Booker 'should apologize' to him

 Allan Smith and Doha Madani, ABC News

Joe Biden on Wednesday doubled down on his statements about working with segregationist senators, telling reporters that he has nothing to be sorry for.


12) Two Weeks After Massacre, Sudanese Set to Reclaim the Streets

People's Dispatch 

Protesters in Sudan are set to reclaim the streets again, barely two weeks after their mass sit-in demonstration outside the army HQ in Khartoum was cleared with a massacre of at least 128 people.

13) Honduran President Cracks Down on Protests-Deploys Military

Telesur 

President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) announced orders to the Honduran military Thursday to deploy to all parts of the country to stamp down the ever-widening protests against the neoliberal policies of his administration. This follows an overnight emergency session with his National Defense and Security Council after a violent night of protests turned deadly.

14) Chile: Nationwide Strike Brings Teachers, Mine-Workers Together

Telesur 

The Workers Unitary Central (CUT), the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF) and the Student Confederation of Chile (Confech) are all on strike Thursday against President Sebastian Piñera's right-wing government, demanding better pay, more funding and a state-based pension system.

15) The Nonwhite Working Class

Henry Grabar, Slate

Talking to the people in Youngstown, Ohio, that the national media usually ignores.

16) Cuban Private Sector Hit Hard by Recent US Sanctions

Telesur 

The non-state sector in Cuba is already registering a significant blow as a result of the U.S. sanctions implemented by President Donald Trump, with craftmanship dropping by about 60 to 80 percent in sales, according to local media.

17) Cuba Condemns US Siege, Stresses Commitment to Socialism

Telesur 

The Cuban government addressed the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, reaffirming the island’s commitment to delivering social justice, despite aggressive new policies enacted by the United States aimed at crippling the country’s economy.

18) United States Spend Ten Times More On Fossil Fuel Subsidies Than Education


James Ellsmoor, Forbes

A new International Monetary Fund (IMF) study shows that USD$5.2 trillion was spent globally on fossil fuel subsidies in 2017. The equivalent of over 6.5% of global GDP of that year, it also represented a half-trillion dollar increase since 2015 when China ($1.4 trillion), the United States ($649 billion) and Russia ($551 billion) were the largest subsidizers.

19) Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America's dirty secret

Erin McCormick, Bennett Murray, Carmela Fonbuena, Leonie Kijewski, Gökçe Saraçoğlu, Jamie Fullerton, Alastair Gee and Charlotte Simmonds, The Guardian 

A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations

20) Photograph lays bare reality of melting Greenland sea ice

Alison Rourke and Fiona Harvey, The Guardian 

Rapidly melting sea ice in Greenland has presented an unusual hazard for research teams retrieving their oceanographic moorings and weather station equipment.

21) How climate change is thawing the 'glue that holds the northern landscape together'

Susan Ormiston & Mia Sheldon · CBC News

In one of the coldest places in Canada, Steve Kokelj is searching for Arctic thaw. He's driving the great Dempster Highway, 747 kilometres of gravel linking southern Canada to the Arctic.

22) India is running out of water, fast

Al Jazeera 

At least 21 cities in India, including capital New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting around 100 million people.

23) ‘Lethal levels of salt’ seen in some southern Ontario waterways, warns WWF Canada

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press

Road salt levels in southern Ontario waterways have hit record highs, making some as salty as the ocean, environmental advocates said Wednesday as they called for measures to mitigate the impact on species and ecosystems.

24) Black Missouri drivers 91% more likely to be stopped, state attorney general finds

Summer Ballentine, Associated Press

A report from Missouri’s attorney general shows that black drivers across the state are 91 percent more likely than white motorists to be pulled over by police and newly collected data shows that African-Americans are even more likely to be stopped in many communities where they live.


25) 'Take your charge like a man': Baltimore police video shows takedown of bystander that led to officer's arrest

Lillian Reed, The Baltimore Sun

When Baltimore police Sgt. Ethan Newberg told fellow officers to arrest a bystander who criticized their tactics as they detained another man, the 24-year veteran of the department said the pedestrian had been “interfering.”

26) 'Hands up, buddy. You're going to die': Violent Edmonton arrest under investigation

Anna McMillan · CBC News

The conduct of a group of Edmonton police officers is being questioned after a video posted online appears to show an officer repeatedly kicking a suspect before slamming him head first into a wall.

27) “I Thought We Were Going to Be Executed”: Police Held Family at Gunpoint After 4-Year-Old Took Doll

Democracy Now

An African-American family is suing the city of Phoenix, Arizona, after police held them at gunpoint because their 4-year-old daughter had allegedly taken a doll from a Family Dollar store. In a video that has since gone viral, officers point guns and yell at the family, and one officer even threatens to shoot the 4-year-old girl’s father, Dravon Ames, in the face. The girl’s mother, Iesha Harper, is heard saying she is unable to hold her hands up because she is holding a child and that she is pregnant. Phoenix’s mayor and police chief have both apologized for what happened, and criticized how the police officers handled the situation. Activists in Phoenix say this is just the latest incident in a police department plagued by issues of police violence and killings. Last year, the city had 44 police shootings, nearly double that of the previous year, and led the nation in police shootings among cities of its size. We speak with Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper, as well as a family spokesperson, Rev. Jarrett Maupin. On Monday, the couple filed a $10 million lawsuit against the city.

28) Philadelphia Pulls 72 Cops After Watchdog Finds Thousands of Officers’ Violent, Racist Social Media Posts

Elliot Hannon, Slate

The Philadelphia Police Department announced Wednesday it had taken 72 officers off the streets in response to the discovery of thousands of offensive social media posts by the officers, including violent messages and racist memes. The officers were placed on desk duty as the social media scandal brews, implicating more than 300 officers of the city’s 6,500-officer police force. “We’ve talked about from the outset how disturbing, how disappointing and upsetting these posts are,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Wednesday. “They will undeniably impact police-community relations.”

29) Woman sues RCMP officer who asked if she was 'at all turned on' during sexual assault

Rafferty Baker · CBC News 

An Indigenous woman is suing a B.C. RCMP officer she says interrogated her in March 2012 when she reported a sexual assault.

30) Three months in jail for cotton candy? Inside the nationwide crime lab backlog

CBS News

There's a growing backlog at crime labs nationwide that's leaving victims waiting for justice: A recent government report found the backlog for DNA analysis increased almost 85% from 2011 through 2017. "CBS This Morning" got a rare look inside the Arkansas state lab, and spoke to one woman stuck behind bars because of the backlog.

31) Ottawa hires hitman to overthrow Venezuelan government

Yves Engler

Meet the hired gun Ottawa is using to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

32) Massive Embezzlement Scandal Threatens Juan Guaido’s Political Future

 Alexander Rubinstein, MPN News 

The political party of Juan Guaido — Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) — was never all that popular to begin with. The sixth largest political party in Venezuela, Popular Will is heavily financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Now, a recently exposed embezzlement scandal in Colombia risks to further alienate the party from the Venezuelan people.

33) Venezuelan Opposition Scrambles in Wake of Humanitarian Aid Scandal

The Real News Network

An opposition-oriented website uncovered a $125,000 corruption scandal involving associates of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared president Juan Guaidó. Independent journalist Dan Cohen tracked down the details of this story.

34) Bolsonaro under pressure from within and below

Orlando Hill, Counterfire 

Although the Bolsonaro regime doesn't look like collapsing immediately, its structure and support are waning and the mass movement is growing.

35) Nearly 300 employees at GTA autism treatment facility given layoff notices

Colin D'Mello, CTV News

Nearly 300 employees at a GTA autism treatment facility received layoff notices on Monday amid an ongoing reorganizing of autism funding by the Progressive Conservative government.

36) Ford government defends layoffs at autism centre, warns more to come

Cynthia Mulligan, CITY TV News

The day after nearly 300 autism service providers were given layoff notices at ErinOakKids, a centre in Mississauga, the Minister of Social Services, Lisa MacLeod, issued a statement defending the move and warns of more to come.

37) Ontario government to allow landlords to increase rent by highest amount since 2013


Hannah Alberga, Blog TO

The Ontario government’s new rent increase guideline for Toronto allows a larger jump than last year's.

38) OSAP cuts are more significant than Ontario students anticipated

Hannah Alberga, Blog TO

Ontario post-secondary students’ OSAP grants and loans are quietly changing overnight.

39) Fedeli, MacLeod, Thompson all demoted in major Ontario cabinet shuffle by Ford


Lucas Powers · CBC News

Some of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's most high-profile cabinet ministers have been moved out of their posts as part of a major shuffle that came amid slumping poll numbers for the premier and controversies on several important files.

40) Doug Ford's chief of staff resigns following patronage controversy

CBC News

Ontario Premier Doug Ford's chief of staff, Dean French, has resigned in the wake of damning reports that the Progressive Conservative government's picks for two patronage appointments had ties to French.

41) Saskatchewan to continue using ‘birth alerts’ despite calls by MMIWG inquiry to stop

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

The Saskatchewan government says it will continue to track or seize at-risk babies despite a call to stop from the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

42) B.C. CFS moves in to seize 90-minute-old baby on report of neglect

Melissa Ridgen, APTN News

An hour and a half after enduring a C-section delivery at a Kamloops hospital, an Indigenous couple was exhausted but elated as they met their baby girl – a first child for both.

43) Four migrant toddlers hospitalized after time at US border facility: lawyers

Morgan Gstalter, The Hill

Immigration attorneys said four toddlers, all under the age of 3, were hospitalized last week after spending time at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas.

44) Trump official tells court detained children don't need beds, soap or toothbrushes

Tom Embury-Dennis, The Independent 

The Trump administration has argued in court it should be able to force detained migrant children to sleep on concrete floors and deprive them of soap and toothbrushes.

45) Why this German city plans to make public transport free

The Local

Citizens in Monheim will be able to ride buses without a ticket from April 2020, regional newspaper the Rheinische Post has reported.

46) Eternal Builder of Dreams and Hopes: Marta Harnecker (1937 – 2019)

 Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity, Socialist Project Bullet 

“Well, friends, that’s it for today. You have to live in uncertainty and get ahead no matter what it takes. A hug as always, full of dreams and hopes.” – Marta

See also: Lula and Brazil, Gulf of Oman, MMIWG Backlash & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 9 - 16