This past week has provided Canadians with a series of warm and fuzzies that, like most of this nation’s mythology, were built on self-congratulatory lies. From the breathless and ankle-deep CBC and CTV interviews with former prime minister Jean Chretien to the Globe and Mail’s front-page shout out to that most disingenuous of foreign ministers, Bill Graham, the occasion was the 10th anniversary of the 2003 escalation of the 23-year war against the people of Iraq.

read more at rabble.ca

One great source for such stories is a new book, Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace .

You can learn more below.->

‘Crossing the Line‘ tells stories of dedication to nonviolence, civil disobedience
John Dear S.J. http://ncronline.org/authors/john-dear-sj | Feb. 26, 2013 On the Road to Peace
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Going to prison for nonviolent civil disobedience against American war-making does wonders to clarify one’s relationship with the U.S. government. I highly recommend it. When I reflect back on my life, it seems I have been preparing for civil disobedience, facing jail or trial, or undergoing probation regularly for 30 years. I’m mainly engaged in writing, speaking and teaching peace to build up the anti-war/global peace movement, but periodic civil disobedience and nonviolent protest have become for me a way of life. Along the way, one meets the best people.
Volume two of Rosalie Riegle’s massive oral history project, Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace (Cascade Books, 2013), makes me realize I’m not alone. This massive collection of interviews with U.S. anti-war resisters (along with Doing Time for Peace, which I reviewed last month) provides an unprecedented historical record of nonviolent resistance over the last five decades and shows how many of us have quietly given our lives to resisting American war-making and practicing nonviolence.

READ MORE at this link: http://ncronline.org/node/46131/

Your letter will automatically be sent to the Ministers of Finance and Revenue, and to the Prime Minister and Opposition leaders, as well as Alex Atamanenko, the MP who is supporting conscientious objection to military taxation through his private members bill.

You can always find out who the ministers and critics are through the Parliamentary website.  We encourage you to send letters by mail if possible, as these generally carry more weight than letters sent by email.

THANK YOU!

Ian McKay and Jamie Swift. Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety. Toronto, Ontario: Between The Lines, 2012. 362 pp. i-xiii. ISBN: 978-1-926662-77-0. Includes bibliographical references and index. $24.95. Also issued in electronic format.

On June 14, 2012, I attended the second of 3 book launch presentations in Ottawa. 50 people came to hear two scholars discuss Canada’s future, sponsored by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Council of Canadians, Workers History Museum, Citizens for Public Justice, and Octopus Books.

Their topic was Canada’s democracy and how the current Conservative Government has been attempting to rebrand the country from a peaceful one to a militaristic one.

Ian McKay is an award-winning history professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. His co-author is an acclaimed journalist Jamie Swift also from Kingston; this is his 8th book.

The authors reveal that the current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative cabinet members are attacking traditional Canadian values of multiculturalism, democracy, the rule of law, a strong social safety net, and global peacekeeping. Their ‘new Warriors’ act as if they were enforcers in Canada’s professional hockey leagues. They do not hesitate to misuse history to achieve their ends.

Calgary political scientist Barry Cooper and historian David Bercuson regularly publish co-ed pieces in the mainstream media. They use such words as ‘must’, ‘need’ and ‘necessary’ in abolishing the welfare state, social programs and peace-keeping. They look forward to a society in which ‘individuals contend for prizes, honours, and recognition of their superiority.’

Another new warrior is J. L. Granatstein who has rallied against peacekeeping because it ‘sapped the potency of Canada’s soldiery’ (p.230). Granatstein is senior research fellow with the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (partly funded by the Department of National Defence).

All of these warriors assume that war itself will always be with us, so we must be ready for a perpetual war. For them the cause of war is just and the sacrifice is noble. It’s a case of the ‘good guys’ against the ‘bad guys’ in a kind of endless war between civilization and barbarism. These are the values that Prime Minister Stephen Harper supports.

McKay and Swift summarize the ultra-Conservative approach as follows:

‘This sort of sturdy individualism appears to be particularly attractive to men of a certain age who have no actual experience of arms conflict, and it is matched by their enthusiasm for war. If the vision smacks of the war of each against all, that is because it is exactly that. At home and abroad, Canadians are urged to think like the uber-patriotic hockey commentator Don Cherry and his approach that glorifies fighting as integral to the national game. It was against this background that in 2011 Canadians were treated to the spectacle of newly minted foreign minister John Baird scrawling a message on a bomb and heading off to Libya where Canadian forces were part of a NATO effort to assist in bombing the country to freedom’ (p.13).

Taking examples from the 1812 Canada-US War, the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, Canada’s UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, and Canada’s military effort in Afghanistan, McKay and Swift show how the extreme makeover of Canada is a threat to Canada’s democracy. Here are some of the indicators of the new makeover:

• Parliamentary democracy and public debate is curtailed by such tactics as passing the omnibus budget Bill C-38 (a kind of Trojan Horse) with 71 items without adequate debate on such important measures as the curtailment of federal environmental assessment; changing the Fisheries Act to allow the unbridled access of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline; raising the eligibility for the Old Age Security to 67 years from 65; restricting Employment Insurance benefits; repealing the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act; eliminating the office of the Inspector General of Canada’s spy agency; allowing US federal agents in cross-border operations to arrest Canadians on Canadian soil; Parks Canada has taken a staff and financial hit by the government permanently removing monitoring and ecological restoration from its responsibilities; increase sanctions on charities that devote more than 10 percent of their resources to political advocacy, and much more.

• Conservative policies have offered a utopian motto of the so-called ‘perfect market system.’ For them, money takes precedence over democracy. In the past 30 years,  the salaries of CEOs have risen up to 250 times more than the regular professional worker. The result is that Canada’s inequality rate is reaching that of the terrible US rates where rich and gigantic corporations ruthlessly control the entire country. Conservatives have failed to look at Iceland and Germany, for example, were taxes are high, but where its citizens have great free medical and educational services and feel that democracy and fair equality are more important than that of the market forces.

• For ultra-Conservatives, fear is central to maintaining a permanent political polarization. It is always ‘us-versus-them’ formulation. The former US President George W. Bush used this tactic during his disastrous term. The Warrior Nation encourages the far right wing cult of fear because one needs an enemy to wage an endless war. Bush and his type such as Dick Cheney have forgotten their history. It was a US decorated general, Major General Smedley Butler, who in 1935 wrote a book declaring that war is a racket and should be shut down. Later US President Dwight D. Eisenhower on his last speech in 1961 warned the Americans of the dangers of the military industrial complex. To their shame, today the US has hundreds of military bases around the world.

• The Warrior Nation proposes a full militarization of society by promoting the culture of war over the culture of peace by such techniques as: exploiting the symbols of the Queen, the Governor General, the use of fighter plane fly pasts, the 21-gun-salute, the use of the military instead of the RCMP, the revival of heroic myths, such as Vimy Ridge, the War of 1812 and other battles, to invigorate the notion of Canada as a warrior nation; promoting war at professional hockey and football events by celebrating the military, echoing the drums and bugle patriotism marshaling support for World War I; using the yellow-ribbon campaign designed to reinvigorate the country in a way that elevates the military as an institution (the symbol came from the US Cavalry fighting the Cheyennes and Araphos, which later in 1973 was consolidated as a symbol of US troops ‘fighting imperial wars in 1973’ (p.254). ); and launching Project Hero, sponsored in 2010 by Rick Hillier (former Stephen Harper’s chief of defence staff), which sought to silence criticism of war by equating it with the failure to support our troops (in response, 16 professors at the University of Regina signed a public letter to the university suggesting it withdraw from Project of Heroes (p.256).).

• When rebranding Canada as a Warrior Nation, known as Operation Connection, was launched in February 6, 2006, a massive military onslaught took place. According to Ian McKay and Jamie Swift (p.279) ‘no hockey game was too minor, no charity dinner too obscure, no country-fair too remote for this marketing exercise .…Veterans became regular visitors to classrooms, their way prepared by textbooks that present Canadian history as a succession of military achievements.’

• Greatly enhanced executive power of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet ministers, giving them extraordinary powers in foreign policy. This has implications for civic liberties.  The meaning of militarization has proceeded into new spheres: ‘dissidents’ now tend to be ‘terrorists’ and the ‘Canadian border’ is now ‘North American security perimeter’ (p.280). In general, military solutions are being substituted for diplomacy, effective intelligence and democratic institutions.

In reading Warrior Nation, I was disturbed at how far the Harper regime has attempted to rebrand Canada as a warrior nation. This is not the vision that my grandparents, the Spirit Wrestlers (Doukhobors) came to Canada with. They were pacifists, imbued with the Tolstoyan nonkilling philosophy. For them it is wrong to kill another human being. Fortunately, the  nonkilling philosophy is today being advanced internationally by the Center for Global Nonkilling in Hawaii. In Canada, the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative and its Bill C-373 in the House of Commons is promoting this new thinking that peace can be best achieved through peaceful means and not by military interventions.

To get Bill C-373 passed in the House, we need concerned Canadians to raise up and be counted. Let’s stop Harper from militarily rebranding our country! We have a critical choice to make — to ensure that ‘warrior Canada’ does not  become reality; that the military industrial complex gets it proper boot; and that we can regain our status as friendly keepers of our brothers and sisters in our world community. The alternative is a fortress compound where might is right, where democracy is a figment of our imagination, and where war readiness is a slavery of our times.

As citizens, we indeed have a choice. Let’s change the debate and choose the path that will benefit all of us — not just the 1% of the upper class. Begin now by reading Ian McKay and Jamie Swift’s excellent book Warrior Nation. Then go to the Internet and sign a petition to establish a new institution within Parliament that would open the door to infinitely new opportunities for creating the culture of peace in Canada and beyond. The task is URGENT for our future, for our children and for our children’s children!

After the meeting, I personally congratulated the authors for a well-researched treatise on the state of our country and its future. Dr. Ian McKay expressed delight in exchanging his book for mine on Spirit Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers’ Strategies for Living. ‘I got the best deal’, he told me, as we both autographed our respective books.

Dear Mr Harper, Mr Flaherty, and Mr Bruinooge,

As the violent and tragic events unfold in Syria, I am reminded again of the
results of instructing men in the ways of killing.  Can we learn anything
from these events?  It is quite possible, and even logical, to expect that
some day, unless we carefully consider and learn from them today, such
horrific events will take place within our own borders.  As military experts
provide overseas instruction and guidance in how to interrogate, torture,
and kill fellow human beings, only the blind cannot see that the results of
our labours may someday return to haunt us, perhaps repaying us many times
over.  And who will take the responsibility for such short-sightedness?

For this reason, I ask you to read the attached note.  This is a personal
plea, but others hold similar points of view.  It is the hope of Conscience
Canada that you, now occupying a majority government would quickly enact
into law a PEACE TAX FUND so that those of us who are opposed to the concept
that stronger armies bring a swifter peace may designate, for the sake of
our consciences, our hard-earned tax dollars toward more peaceful
enterprises.

I apologize for the length of the attachment, but that may serve to
demonstrate the sincerity of my plea.  It is within your power to enact such
a bill, now!

My Earnest Plea for a Peace Tax Fund
In many African cultures, where the wisdom of the aged is still held in high
esteem, there are three groups of people: the living (with whom we interact
in the course of our work and play), the living dead (with whom we once
interacted, but who have recently – within our lifetimes – passed away and
remain fresh in our memories), and the dead dead (with whom we have never
interacted, but whose pilgrimage on earth has been recorded). Each group
passes on its wisdom to succeeding generations, often through proverbs.

I am among those who believe that one purpose of living a long life is to be
able to pass along to the next generation any wisdom learned in the present
one. I believe we would do well to listen to those whose speak from
experience. Why should Canadians, and the Canadian government deliberately
choose to ignore the wisdom learned by the forefathers?

My perception of war as a sensible means of human interaction can be summed
up in a quote from Blaise Pascal, who was not only a very logical thinker,
but also a person of deep faith:

Can anything be more stupid than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?

I fully understand that there are those whose hopes and aspirations are
closely connected to conquest and battle, and who hold other points of view.
But I submit my plea on behalf of those who believe as I do, that war is NOT
the solution to international disputes.

I ask you to consider the following seven quotes, from among dozens, taken
from “Symposium on War” compiled by John Horsch and published by Mennonite
Peace Problems Committee in 1927. Those speaking are the dead dead, pleading
from the grave that we would exercise wisdom in order to prevent the
immeasurable suffering that war brings on soldier and civilian, nation and
planet, alike.

If my soldiers would really think, not one of them would remain in the
ranks.
–Frederick the Great

The more I study the history of the world, the more I am convinced of the
inability of brute force to create anything durable.

–Napoleon Bonaparte

My first wish is to see this plague on mankind [war] banished from the
earth and, although it is against the profession of arms and would clip the
wings of some young soldiers soaring after glory, to see the whole world at
peace and the inhabitants striving who could contribute most to the
happiness of mankind.

– George Washington

I confess without shame that I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all
moonshine. It is only those who have neither heard a shot nor heard the
shrieks and groans of the wounded, who cry aloud for more blood, more
vengeance, more desolation . . . War is hell.

– General W. T. Sherman

The object of military training is to win battles . . . . . bayonet
fighting is only possible because red-blooded men naturally possess the
fighting instinct. This inherent desire to fight and kill must be carefully
watched for and encouraged by the instructor.

–“Manual of Military Training,” by Colonel James A. Moss, U.S.A., and Major
John W. Lang, U.S.A.

And those that killed and maimed these boys of ours, and whom our boys
were so carefully trained to harm and destroy, scarcely knew what it was all
about, never knew each other and had no personal grudge of any kind – just a
wild, organized orgy of murder and venom in the name of “patriotism,” in the
cause of “glorious war”, and all of us so blithely, smugly, sacrilegiously
sure the Lord, the Prince of Peace, was on our side.

– Editorial article,
Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1922

An army exists to kill men, when ordered, in the nation’s quarrel,
irrespective of its justice. It should train its men to a single end. If we
object to any of our citizens thus specializing on murderous and unchristian
activities, we should abolish the army. If we want an army, we should
recognize it for what it is. We should not tell lies about its being a
school of citizenship or manual training.

– An army officer, Christian Century, March 11, 1926

With which of these voices would you disagree?

I do not wish to be among those who cannot hear the past voices of wisdom,
and I choose to object to organized conflict. Since the government accepts
my position as a conscientious objector to war, it would be reasonable for
it to understand that neither do I wish my taxes to support war.

Since you are now in a majority government, it would be an easy thing to
take just a brief moment to introduce and enact a bill to establish a Peace
Tax fund for others who, like me, would prefer that our hard-earned tax
dollars be put to peaceful purposes.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. It is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Eric Unger
Member of Conscience Canada

PS: An additional quote from a former president of the United States, D.D.
Eisenhower, who intimately understood what war is all about, and shares his
wisdom from the grave:

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one can who has
seen its brutality, its stupidity.

“Some time ago I heard an interview with Trevor Greene, an interview that moved me to tears, about how he had reached a point of forgiveness following the terrible axe attack that nearly killed him.

Oddly enough, I think there is quite a profound connection between COs (like me) and soldiers. Maybe it is partly that both groups put a lot on the line in support of what they believe in. Certainly, although I would never encourage someone to join the military, for me and others in Conscience Canada, it is vitally important that our work not be seen as dismissive of the sacrifices made by soldiers.

All this to say that I am so very delighted that the democracy Trevor Greene wants to defend seems to be the same one I too want to defend.”

From one battlefield to another

By Trevor Green

(Published in the Toronto Star, Saturday, May 12 2012)

Every generation updates and renews the values that make us who we are. I once found it hard to truly understand what those in my grandfather’s generation meant when they spoke of making the ultimate sacrifice in wartime to allow their loved ones back home to live in a democracy.

Until, that is, I myself almost lost it all in a remote village in Afghanistan on behalf of the values that make us Canadian, values that I now see as under threat not by a foreign force, but by a domestic one.

Compared with others who did make the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, like my friend Bill Turner, who took my place in the field, my story has been well publicized.

On March 4, 2006, I was part of the 1st Battalion PPCLI battle group in the tiny village of Shinkay, when during a meeting with local elders to discuss their needs for water, housing and education, an insurgent sneaked up behind our group and buried a crude axe in my skull.

Unconscious, I was taken to the base hospital in Kandahar, where I was stabilized for the flight to a U.S.-run hospital in Germany. Fast forward through 10 hospitals and today I am back living in Canada with the goal of proving wrong those doctors who said that I’d never walk again.

Every morning, I also wake up and count my blessings, as we all should, that I get to spend another day with loved ones. My wife Debbie has stood beside me like a rock, and my young daughter keeps giving me that jolt of energy that only kids can give their parents, and I need it more than most. We now have a son on the way.

Frequently, however, the newspapers bring clouds to my day. The Canada I went overseas to fight for was a tolerant and open society, always striving to do the right thing, and to bring to the world a sense that tomorrow can be better than today.

Today, though, the government in Ottawa seems to want to throw all that out the window. Stephen Harper’s vision of Canada seems to begin, and end, in the tarsands, and everything else be damned. Tolerance is redefined as applying only to anyone who agrees with that vision. Everyone else is “radical,” an “extremist,” or even included in his government’s new program battling terrorism.

This is an insult to those of us who have fought, and sacrificed for our country, against real radicals, real extremists and real terrorists.

When I read about ministers of the Crown attacking and smearing heroes like David Suzuki, who are trying to put us on a more sustainable pathway, I wonder what’s happened to Canada. I fear for the kind of world my daughter and son stand to inherit should we cave in to this oil-driven agenda. Not a good one, I am certain.

If my own story gives inspiration to others, and I hope it does, then it’s about exactly that — hope. I was given little chance of surviving, let alone thriving, and I’ve already half proven that wrong.

With determination, we can overcome all manner of adversity, and reclaim who we are both as individuals and as a people. We face this challenge now with Ottawa, with a government that is taking our country in the wrong direction, undermining the values that make us who we are. I am loath to have to admit to my children that the irreversible degradation of their planet continued on my watch.

Capt. (ret’d) Trevor Greene now lives in Nanaimo, BC with his wife Debbie and daughter Grace. They are expecting a son in June. The Greenes run a foundation to educate Afghan girls as teachers.”

I am deeply impressed by the courage shown by these military/former military people. May their courage motivate others to join in their efforts to put an end to war.

Dear Mr Prime Minister and Mr President,

If you have not watched this clip in full, I encourage you do so as soon as possible. I would interpret the act of NOT watching it as either an act of choosing to remain blind to the disaster that is being created by wars around this planet, or a failure to show the kind of courage needed so desperately by today’s leaders.

AT THE VERY LEAST, this clip should justify the establishment of a Department of Peace in both your governments, to which citizens who are opposed to the destruction of our environment through war, and of human souls (civilian and military), may submit their taxes without being burdened in conscience.

Sincerely,
Eric Unger