Human Rights for Whom?: Mediascout

Human Rights for Whom?

If only the left hand seemed to know what the right hand was up to, the public may have actually believed the sanctimonious speech delivered by US President George W. Bush yesterday that was meant to call out China on its human rights violations. Speaking from Bangkok yesterday, President Bush boldly criticized the way in which the Chinese government treats it human rights activists and political dissenters. “We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labour rights, not to antagonize China’s leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.” It seems that the president did not mention the treatment of prisoners in his speech, perhaps because on that same day his government was busy convicting Salim Hamdan in a trial that human rights groups are calling a “sham.” Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver, was the first person to be charged in the war crimes tribunal in Guantanamo Bay launched by the Bush administration. It is the first US war crimes trial since the Second World War.

Hamdan, who was Bin Laden’s driver from 1995 to 2001, was convicted on five charges of aiding terrorism but acquitted on three charges of conspiring to plot the 9/11 attacks. Deputy White House spokesperson Tony Fratto has called it a “fair trial,” but the Big Seven would have us believe otherwise. Because the trial was run by a military commission rather than through regular US legal channels, Hamdan was not afforded the same rights that other US prisoners would be granted in his position. The Post reports that the trial included testimony that Hamdan was not aware would be used in court, while CTV points out that the case was tainted by coercive tactics such as sleep deprivation and solitary confinement. Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union points out that never before has

“a military tribunal been convened to punish such a low-level offender for such a low-level charge.”

It is expected that the Bush administration will push ahead with the prosecution on war crimes charges of eighty other Guantanamo detainees before Bush leaves office in January. Perhaps by then Bush will have applied his own human rights rhetoric to lessons at home.

Vivian Belik is a Winnipeg-based MediaScout writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.

Mediascout's roundup on the G8

8 Talks Big, Achieves Little

Western leaders pretended to occupy the moral high ground yesterday at the start of the annual G8 summit, this year in Rusutsu, Japan. The heads of seven African nations, attending a supposedly goodwill meeting with the richest countries in the world, were summarily chewed out by “the rich-man’s club” for not censuring Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe after he rigged his own re-election. Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined the chorus of disappointment with African nations, using some of the strongest language of all G8 leaders in his condemnation of Mugabe. But the supposed world leaders were quickly humbled by a persistent media and a corps of non-governmental organizations that also made the trip to Japan, and immediately took to criticizing the G8 for its lack of action on major issues. A leaked memo that contained a draft of the summit’s final communique suggested that discussions about a G8 move to increase aid to Africa would be tabled until a later meeting, and action on emissions reductions would be deferred to a later meeting of the United Nations. Later reports confirmed that the leaders have agreed to long-term targets on reductions, but that agreement is already being criticized by environmental groups as being vague.

The most-reported sound bites of the day come not from the most powerful politicians in the world, but from Oxfam. Spokesman Max Lawson blasted the G8 - and Canada in particular, and Harper specifically - for failing to keep a promise to double aid to Africa over the past five years. Harper said that the $2.1 billion in aid Canada currently sends to Africa is effectively a doubling of aid, while critics say it falls hundreds of millions of dollars short of the target. International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda didn’t provide much insight to reporters, but she did say that issues of governance are tied to issues of aid; Canada would not give money to nations with tyrannical leaders. African leaders suggested that insufficient aid was the root of the problem in countries like Zimbabwe. In the midst of what was quickly becoming a do-nothing summit for leaders, the Citizen and the Post (neither available online) published the most damning - and awkward - indictment of the G8 leaders’ potential insincerity. It chronicled the lavish, eight-course dinner of caviar, smoked salmon, and Kyoto beef that leaders enjoyed while they debated solutions to the world food crisis. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had told reporters on the way to Japan that the world should reduce “unnecessary demand” for food. Right. If the G8 continues to embarrass itself at its own summits, the world will simply stop listening to anything its leaders have to say.

The Truth Commission update on Maissonueve (press roundup)

150 Years of Abuse, 5 Years of Truth

April 29, 2008

Funded by Ottawa and carried out by churches, the systematic assimilation of natives through residential schooling is a tragic, unsettling piece of Canadian history. As part of an out-of-court settlement that will pay out some $2 billion to survivors of the native school system, the government promised to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to record the tragedy for the history books. On Monday, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced that Justice Harry LaForme will be its chair. LaForme, a member of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation of southern Ontario, is tasked with writing the “official history” of residential schools over the course of the commission’s five-year mandate. “Ultimately, we all want to make sure we achieve a fair and lasting resolution to the sad legacy of residential schools,” he said, as quoted in a CBC News article. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will serve as a nationwide forum for former aboriginal students, church representatives, and educators to tell their stories. The aim is, in short, to educate Canadians on the impact the residential school system had on some 150,000 aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children who were removed from their communities at age six and forced to attend these schools, where they fell victim to widespread physical and sexual abuse.

LaForme’s $60-million commission will be independent from government, church, and First Nations groups, and will have “unfettered access” to all archives as it explores the 150-year history of residential schools. The task is characterized as monumental, as many former students and school employees are long dead, and many key documents and records have been destroyed. LaForme sees similarities between Canada’s Indian residential schools and South African apartheid, reports the Globe. The commission is, after all, modeled on the commission in South Africa, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that explored that country’s policy of segragating black people from white. Strahl indicated that the government plans to make a formal apology to the ninety thousand victims and their families before Parliament breaks for the summer, reports the Post. The commission will be formally established on June 1.

Claire Ward is a Toronto-based MediaScout writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.

Anapolis Summit; the Canadian Press via Mediascout

FAINT HOPE FROM FADING MIDEAST LEADERS
by Jordan Himelfarb
November 28, 2007

Proof, once again, MEDIA SCOUT is SO on the money!! This is Joradan Himelfarb's brilliant analysis of the state of "neutral" Canada's current editorializing on the Middle East. He's seen the real, underlaying issues very clearly.

The Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which concluded yesterday with a promise of future peace, possessed a crooked kind of charm. US President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, all wildly unpopular leaders among their own people, all with dubious authority to broker with the land at issue—all decided that “the time is right,” as Bush put it, for peace in the Middle East. In a carefully worded joint statement, which artfully sidestepped any mention of the most divisive issues, such as the future status of Jerusalem and the right of Palestinian return, Olmert and Abbas agreed to engage in what the Globe describes as “intensive, ongoing negotiations,” aimed at reaching a deal within the next year. The negotiations are to be moderated by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Today’s sources spill a good deal of ink on whether the leaders are ready to make the necessary concessions to arrive at such a deal, and whether, if successful, they will be able to sell that agreement to their respective publics.

The Big Seven are skeptical about the prospect of Mideast peace, but, for the most part, commentators are not without hope. In an editorial in the Post, Jonathan Kay concludes that, “as unfashionable as it may be for jaded observers to express any optimism about the Middle East, we find ourselves heartened by events in Annapolis,” while a tough-talking and balanced editorial in the Star expresses a similar sentiment: “However faint, Annapolis is a hope and a prayer worth sustaining.” Only the Citizen, which is surpassingly angst-ridden today, paints a picture of insurmountable bleakness. David Warren’s one-sided editorial in that paper (not available online) lays the blame for the moribund Mideast peace process squarely on the Palestinians for refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state, and suggests that “nothing essential has changed.” A separate article in the Citizen supports Warren’s scepticism, referring to polls that show that most in the Middle East are dismissing the talks as futile. Still, most sources acknowledge that talking about peace is better than not talking about it, even if the negotiators lack the power or popularity to do much more than chat.

DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRACY … COMMUNISM: China update

From www.maisonneuve.com/mediascout

La Presse (not available online) and the Post (not available online) front, as The National, the Globe, the Star and the Citizen go inside on Chinese President Hu Jintao’s speech at Beijing’s first Communist congress in five years. Hu’s fifty-eight-page speech delivered the agenda for China for the next five years to 2,200 dutifully applauding delegates. It addressed some of the country’s challenges, the Globe reports, such as corruption, the widening gap between rich and poor, rising unemployment, and the wasteful consumption of resources. While China’s state news agency, Xinhua, rendered the speech as pro-democratic—even counting the number of times Hu uttered the Chinese term for “democracy” (upwards of sixty times, apparently)—the Globe characterizes Hu’s actual proposals for democratic reform as “modest and small-scale, largely limited to local initiatives and party procedures.” The Post writes that Hu will continue to suppress basic rights such as press freedom and freedom from censorship within his initiative to use such tools to “give correct guidance to the public and foster healthy social trends.” While he acknowledged his country’s growing dissatisfaction with Communist rule, the Chinese leader stated that his focus remained on economic development rather than political reform. The Star reports that Hu reminded his delegates that China was transformed from a country “on the verge of collapse” three decades ago into the world’s fourth largest economy today. Reaffirming the Communist party’s control of China, Hu stated: “We must uphold the party’s role as the core of leadership in directing the overall situation.”

SEX AND DEATH IN MOTHER RUSSIA

The Globe goes inside, while the Citizen and the Star (not available online) brief Russia’s announcement that it has developed a vacuum bomb powerful enough to rival nuclear bombs. Russian state TV yesterday showed footage of a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber dropping ordnance, followed by a massive explosion and footage of a multi-storey apartment building lying in ruins. "The defence ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty. Russia is not unleashing a new arms race," the TV broadcast stated. Vacuum bombs work by unleashing a massive shock wave that flattens its surroundings. Dubbed “the father of all bombs”—in reference to the US’s less powerful MOAB, or “mother of all bombs”—the new Russian weapon is being touted as a bomb that “does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one,” a Russian official is quoted as saying. While the world scratches its head over the notion of an “environmentally friendly” bomb, the Star and the Globe go inside with an Associated Press story reporting that Russians in the country’s Ulyanovsk region are set to celebrate the third annual “Conception Day.” Responding to Russia’s plummeting birth rate, which threatens to halve the country’s population in a few generations, the Ulyanovsk region’s governor is offering women of child-bearing age a half-day off to conceive children. Mothers of children born nine months after the holiday—on June 12, Russia’s national day—will receive prizes such as money, refrigerators or even a locally-made SUV called the UAZ-Patriot. The birth rate in Ulyanovsk is up 4.5 percent year-on-year.

Daniel Tencer is a Toronto-based MediaScout writer for Maisonneuve Magazine.

I read about this yesterday and meant to post about it, but found maissonneuve is right on it.

Again, this is a story that is MORE than meets the eye.

V
HUFFIN AND PUFFIN OVER NUFFIN
by Jordan Himelfarb
www.maisonneuve.org/mediascout
August 31, 2007

OSHAWA AS RECESSION BELLWETHER?
The National, CTV News and the Star lead, while the Citizen goes inside with the slashing of 1,200 jobs at a General Motors truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario. In response to the precipitous fall in sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, GM has cut production at the Oshawa plant from three shifts to two. Many of those losing their jobs live in the Whitby-Oshawa riding of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who responded somewhat defensively to news of the cuts. Though “it’s a concern because people are going to lose their jobs and I know a lot of those people,” Flaherty suggested,with the Canadian unemployment rate lower than it’s been in a generation, these newly unemployed autoworkers are sure to find work elsewhere. Canadian Autoworkers Union president Buzz Hargrove took the news with less serenity: “They shocked the living hell out of us, quite frankly.”

Analysts throughout the Big Seven blame the cuts on a stumbling American economy, and particularly the plummeting US real estate market. A detailed article in the Star isolates three primary causes of the layoffs: the US real estate crash, which has meant workers are less likely to buy pick-ups; the rising Canadian dollar, which has made Canadian exports more expensive abroad; and astronomical oil prices, which have rendered gas-guzzling trucks unaffordable for many. Liberal finance critic John McCallum posited the cutbacks as a foreboding development for the Canadian economy: “All the economists are telling me … the possibility of a recession is rising, and that’s why it’s ever more important that this government takes action and shows economic competence.” With analysts extrapolating from the trajectory of the global economy, the word “recession” is bandied about extensively in today’s sources, though no pundit is bold enough to make an outright prediction.