Dialogue27 4 summer14

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VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO.4

www.dialogue.ca

A word from the publisher and editor…

Dear Reader, The 2014 Summer edition of Dialogue marks the end our 27th year. This issue is in print thanks to the recent donations of some 30 readers – who responded to Penny’s appeal in the last issue – for which we are all deeply grateful.

Janet, Maurice and Penny This edition is officially our “D” issue – as we work our way through the alphabet! Among our “D” topics are “Dogs” and “Democracy” – as well as “Darwin” and “Deep State” power structures, as depicted on the cover.

Humanity has long been living a ‘Darwinian’ survival-of-the-fittest paradigm – purportedly justifying endless violence, competition & wars.

But what if that theory does NOT reflect the true nature of humanity?

It is becoming abundantly clear to many people that our current system is dangerously “out-of-synch” with who we are and the world we live in.

Darwin’s crucial lesson for humanity – the importance of love and cooperation, which he wrote about later in life – has been ignored, perhaps because it ran counter to the prevailing power structure. But thanks to author and researcher David Loye, we now know of Charles Darwin’s most important work: the case for the primacy of love, moral sensitivity, mutual aid, and education – as higher order drivers for human evolution.

[See pp.24, 60 – “Darwin’s Lost Theory: Bridge to a better world”] Meanwhile, Peter Dale Scott’s book “The Road to 9/11” explores the hidden apex of the ‘survival-by-any-means’ power structures – the “deep state” – in the 20th and 21st centuries. [See pp.27, 60].

This issue also distinguishes itself with a number of poignant life stories shared by readers who have experienced, or are experiencing, dramatic challenges in their lives. [Pages 45-52] And we are pleased to welcome Sharon Lawrence (p.16), Susan McCaslin (p.28-29), and Colin Knauf (p.36) as regular columnists in Dialogue.

There are many not-to-be-missed ‘treasurers’ in this edition – and we hope you will discover them all, during relaxed summer reading time.

This issue of Dialogue was made possible by the participation and support of its readers and friends; the magazine is an independent, volunteer-produced, not-for-profit publication that has always relied on the subscriptions and donations of its readers to survive. Your donations are vital to keeping the publication in print! Without your support and your voices, there would be no dialogue! Thank you.

Maurice

, volunteer publisher

Janet, volunteer editor/layout …& Penny &Lucky!

Until we find a way to grow our number of subscribers, we will continue to need the support and donations of readers who want to help keep Dialogue in print! Thank you! And Penny’s “Thank You” Invitation is still open!

(See p. 2 of the Spring edition). We welcome your suggestions for “E” themes for the Autumn 2014 Edition (target deadline August 1st). www.dialogue2.ca

dialogue is... …an independent, volunteerproduced, not-for-profit Canadian magazine, written and supported by its readers - empowering their voices and the sharing of ideas.

Now in its 27th year, dialogue provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and an antidote to political correctness.

We encourage readers to share with others the ideas and insights gleaned from these pages.

If this is your first issue, please let us know what you think of it.

If you would like to share your ideas and become a writer in

dialogue magazine Consider this your personal invitation to participate!

We also need your support as a subscriber, to help us continue (See P. 58 for details) We receive NO government funding and no advertising revenue.

We rely totally on the generous support of our readers & subscribers.

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was founded in 1987 and is now published quarterly.

Maurice J. King, Volunteer Publisher Janet K. Hicks, Volunteer Editor Date of Current Issue: June 3, ‘14

Annual subscription: $20.00 [including GST, # 89355-1739] Canada Post Agreement No. 40069647 Registration No. 08915 ISSN: 1184-7042 Legal Deposit: National Library of Canada (409731)

The views expressed in this publication are those of their individual authors.

Reprints of published articles are included for their educational value.

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VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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From Near & Far Criminalizing Criticism of Israel in Canada Bill C-13, A “Digital Trojan Horse for the Surveillance State” [C-13: Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, sponsored by Peter MacKay]

By Michael Keefer, Global Research, Ottawa April 02, 2014 [QUOTE & LINK] Dr. Michael Geist, the

Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, has observed that Bill C-13 does indeed retain provisions that permit an increased warrantless access to personal information, far beyond what is envisioned by the current Criminal Code. Criminal lawyer Michael Spratt has denounced the bill as a “digital Trojan horse for the surveillance state”: ‘most of C-13 has little to do with protecting victims [of cyber-bullying]. This bill would recklessly expand the surveillance powers of the state. It sacrifices personal privacy. It limits or eliminates judicial oversight. It is inconsistent with recent Supreme Court jurisprudence. It’s a dangerous bill.’ […] The bill even includes ‘hate legislation’….” In this latter respect Bill

Collateral damage of oil pipelines Bill Woollam, Duncan BC

One of the owners of a local newspaper took a quarter of a page to attempt to sway readers to the value of an Enbridge oil pipeline from Northern Alberta to Kitimat, BC (he advocated refining that bitumen fluid at a Kitimat port). It all sounds great on paper, but even the residents of Kitimat voted against such a project reaching their community.

I went to a local meeting, sponsored by OneCowichan.ca, to find out why so many citizens along the proposed pipeline route are not in favour of the project. I learned that 220 tanker-ships a year would be loaded with crude oil in Kitimat, and that those ships would soon encounter the hazards of many small islands, followed by 25-foot waves, as they navigated their way out of the channel to the Pacific ocean. An inevitable tanker spill will cost the province between 2.4 to 9.5 billion dollars in damages and clean-up costs.

Enbridge would only be on the hook for about one billion dollars of that expense. Taxpayers would have to cover the rest, and the coastline would be left with the 20-year mess (as in the Exxon Valdez tanker spill).

I also learned that the amount of tax revenue this oil pipeline would generate over the next 30 years would 4 dialogue

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C-13 incorporates, once again, a Trojan horse. The bill adds wording to the Hate Propaganda sections of the Criminal Code that seems, on the face of it, to do no more than to bring these sections into conformity with other parallel texts - with several important documents of international law, and with a sentencing provision later in the Criminal Code where the same wording already appears. But a second intention is also arguably at work in this part of Bill C-13, for there is good reason to believe that the new wording is intended, while deceptively avoiding any public debate over the matter, to make it possible to prosecute human rights discourse and advocacy relating to the oppressive treatment of Palestinians by the state of Israel as hate speech or incitement of hatred. […]

READ IN FULL AT LINK: www.globalresearch.ca/criminalizing-criticism-of-israel-incanada/5376306 

only amount to 1.2 billion dollars. Not even enough to cover one tanker spill, let alone a pipeline rupture along the route. Regarding profits to be shared by British Columbians: even though such a pipeline will take 3000 workers to build, only 560 jobs will be permanent after completion.

And does anyone believe Mr. Black's assertion that a tanker spill of refined oil will just 'evaporate' without damaging the sea-life or coastline?

A sailing and fishing enthusiast spoke up at the meeting of concerned valley citizens and told us: "The pristine wilderness and coastline of British Columbia is cherished and admired the world over. Hundreds of millions of dollars are brought to BC each year because its natural beauty is sought after by tourists from across the globe. Look to Europe, Asia, and the United States and you will be hard-pressed to find such preserved land and water-scapes. Let us rally around the vision of protecting this rare coastline and wilderness for all the world to enjoy."

Bill Woollam, [ templelife@hotmail.com ] www.blissful-wisdom.com  More from Bill: about fracking, on p.21 See also Don Harrison’s letter on pipelines, p.9

www.dialogue.ca

The Democracy Debate Jack Etkin, Victoria BC

When I talk about democracy, I mean Democracy – “government of, by and for the people” is one definition. I don't expect perfection, but I think democracy should mean that ‘what the citizens of Canada want’ is the direction we should be moving in. There have to be tools in place to give more power to 'the people'.

We need, I think, a better voting system, and we need to reform our parliaments and governments so that power is moved downwards towards the citizens. I think we need some direct democracy so we can overrule politicians who won't do what we want. We need more public oversight of political parties to ensure that

they operate fairly, honestly, and ‘democratically’ which is not the case now.

I think all of these things are directions that most Canadians would want to move in. We also definitely need more independent media so that people have access to non-corporate information. That is vital.

I've also heard that the Iroquois had a very democratic system, although I don't know anything about it.

In today's world, the Swiss seem to be quite democratic, the Northern European countries as well, and if we can move in those directions I think this will be a [ jetkin@hotmail.com ]  better country and society.

In response to Jack’s thoughts on Democracy From: Eva Lyman [ evalyman@gmail.com ]

Interesting debate! Most people don't really think democracy is anything beyond voting. Communist regimes, and the Nazis also had voting! The issue is how you choose the candidates – and if you can get rid of them should they not perform the people's directives.

In the compendium of essays under title "Original Instructions," there is an interesting layout of the Iroquoian system by Oren Lyons (sadly, he passed on). The women elected the male leadership, and they watched at all meetings that the guys were doing the right thing. The leadership was made up of individuals of some wisdom and vision (I think he refers to them as 'good souls' or something like that). The women, via the clan grandmother, could unseat any non-performing leader.

Who said these guys were ‘savages’?! I think they

The reasonableness of ratios?

Ken Kellington, Devon AB

The recent prisoner exchange of one American Soldier for Five terrorists has raised many concerns and questions in the United States and other countries.

There are many Canadians who may find this five to one ratio of prisoner exchange outrageous. We should however think about other outrageous ratios that, by law, occur – even in Canada.

In 1959, our Parliament passed the Official Languages Act, creating a law of Official Bilingualism of English and French for all Canadians. Today, fifty-five years later, after spending hundreds of billions of dollars – increasing the expenses to all levels of government and business – what are the results? Quebec has www.dialogue.ca

had democracy down to a T. Or should that be D? The point is the term democracy is pretty well misunderstood. Maybe if we talked about pensions (all people should be secure in their old age, not dependent on markets), medicare, housing, jobs, and how the Government can plan for these to be available to all that want them? How about guaranteed income for everyone? Is that democracy? To me it is. But we can't achieve these if government is in hock to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank of International Settlements (BIS), et al. However, we could through the use of our publicly-owned Bank of Canada.

Recall is important, but there is one danger, and that is that "the bad guys" could smear a good rep. and turn a recall vote against him/her. I have not figured out a  way to prevent this. Anyone?

One Official Language of French and the rest of Canada – with less than five percent of the population able to speak, read or understand French – continues with this failed policy of Official Bilingualism.

What was the population ratio, between Quebec and the rest of Canada you may ask? In 2013, Statistics Canada states the estimated total population of Canada was thirty-five million (35,158) and the population of Quebec was eight million (8,153). That is a ratio of more than four to one.

But the skewed policy continues to increase the cost to Canadians by hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) annually. Is this a logical ratio?  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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"The Historic Link between Capitalism and Slavery" Whatever happened on the road to emancipation?

Ed Goertzen, Oshawa ON

The last edition of Dialogue introduced the book Babylonian Woe (1975) by David Astle (on p.6 of the Spring edition)

With poverty a scourge all over the world, many hard working people are Ed Goertzen wondering what ever happened on the road to emancipation. {Emancipate: To free from bondage, oppression, or restraint; to liberate} The short answer is that emancipation never happened. What did happen was that that major pillar of capitalism (wage slavery) was put in place.

The following quote from the above mentioned book reveals the truth of what happened in the USA, but the real story is the evidence to which the letter refers and which happened during the Wesleyan Great Christian Revival of the 18th century.

First the Quote from The Babylonian Woe [Chapter IX, Page 134, Reference: #10]: The following letter circularized amongst American Bankers by European banking interests during the American Civil War (1861 – 1865) gives a most revealing light on this subject. There is no reason to suppose that the motives of the trapezitae (bankers) of the Greek city states were in any way more altruistic: [Quote] "Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are in favour of, for slavery is but the owning of labour and carries with it the care of the labourers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labour by controlling wages..."

This letter, known as the Hazard Circular, is to be found on Pages 44-45 of a book by June Grem.

[End Quote]

What happened in 18th century England is explained in the book England, Before and After Wesley (1938)

by J. Wesley Breda.

During John Wesley’s (1703 – 1791) ministry, which garnered some severe public opposition, a little known sect called the “Clapham Sect” was quietly and unobtrusively supporting his mission.

[Quote, Pg. 302] Wilberforce however was but typi-

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cal of that remarkable group of men historically remembered as "The Clapham Sect." So dubbed by Sydney Smith, because many of them lived around Clapham Common, and because their chief haunt was the spacious, Chatham-designed library of Henry Thornton, in Clapham, this group included statesmen and men of affairs, whose daily contacts extended to the ends of the earth.

Among them were a Governor-General of India, a Chairman of the East India Company, the "King" of the Colonial Office, several Members of Parliament, a Governor of Sierra Leone, the head of a great banking house, and philanthropists and publicists, whose ceaseless, sacrificial labours benefited millions of their fellow men. Among them were Anglicans, Nonconformists and Quakers; Conservatives, Liberals and Independents. [pg. 303] Their common bond was Evangelical Christianity and their common "enthusiasm" the application of the ethic of Christ to personal, social, political, national and international affairs. [End quote]

These ‘Leaders of the Times’ were very aware, and in fact were participating in the Industrial Revolution (1750-1850). The pressing need for a moral workforce with a strong work ethic was an important ingredient.

The preaching by Wesley filled the bill admirably.

In some ways we are returning to the Capitalism of the 18th century. At that time, during Wesley's ministry, it was the 'poor helping the poor' which gave substance to Jesus teachings and fuelled the Great Christian Revival.

The development of the welfare state was the antidote to the increasing violence that accompanied the emergence of increasing numbers of wage slaves who were either too old to work or had become incapacitated.

The assembly line and later cybernetics also contributed to a lessening of the need for a plentiful supply of wage slaves.

In recent times, the care of elderly and unemployed wage slaves is being opposed by the fiscal neoconservatives. That attack on the welfare state is becoming increasingly clear.

In Mel Hurtig's book, The Betrayal of Canada (1991), on page 171, a chart shows how the betrayal is executed through the use of Canada's tax system. In 1950, federal revenue was obtained almost equally  www.dialogue.ca

Ed Goertzen, "The Historic Link between Capitalism and Slavery," contd.

(about 48 to 52%) from individual income tax and corporate profit tax. That revenue was gradually changed so that in 1991 the revenue was 90% from individual income and consumption tax (GST etc.) and a mere 10% from corporate profits. With the most recent reductions in the corporate profit tax, we can confidently say that the split is now about 5% to 95%.

Again, as in the 18th century, it is the poor wage slaves who are paying for the support and maintenance of the infirm and elderly (and also, through their taxes, to elaborate ‘corporate welfare’ subsidies!).

*** As a youth, my Mother told me a story about an ironworker committed to prison, bound in chains, who knew that every chain has a flaw by which it could be broken. On examination he found that he himself had created the chain. Then he gave up, since he knew his own expertise was perfect.

The lesson being that "the strongest chains are those which we ourselves create and with which we bind ourselves."

During the South African apartheid era, a boy said, "act as though the oppressor does not exist" Ed Goertzen, Oshawa, Ontario 

Media Refuse to Publish BC Mayor’s Critique of Smart Meters Kim Goldberg, April 23, 2014

The following guest editorial about smart meters was written by John Ranns, the longtime Mayor of the District of Metchosin on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Mayor Ranns wrote this guest editorial in November 2013 and submitted it for publication to the Victoria Times-Colonist and subsequently to other major newspapers in British Columbia. When his secretary followed up with the Victoria TimesColonist about the status of his submission, the newspaper said it would not be publishing the piece because the piece was not topical. Mayor Ranns received no other replies from major media, and ultimately no major media outlets published his piece.

Read for yourself the opinion that British Columbia’s news outlets saw unfit to print. [Originally posted at Kim’s website: http://electroplague.com/tag/mayor-john-ranns/ ]

Mayor’s editorial on smart meters

by John Ranns, Nov. 2013

What I find most disturbing about BC Hydro’s forced imposition of smart meters is how readily politicians of all parties have abandoned fundamental principles of a free society in order to accommodate bureaucratic expediency. Individual freedom Mayor John Ranns demands that government has District of boundaries. As far back as the Metchosin, BC 1600s the concept that individuals need sanctuary from government was established in British Common Law (still applicable in British Columbia), clearly stating that your home is your castle and the sovereign will not cross your threshold withwww.dialogue.ca

out following due process. Except now they have. In one stroke, the Province is saying that lawful citizens no longer have a choice in what enters or leaves their homes.

Although debate has been carefully steered to encompass technical arguments and ignore principle, there are two facts about smart meters that cannot be denied: They emit radiation into your house. And, when Hydro chooses, they will gather and disseminate personal information, which previously would have required a court order.

Whether the radiation is harmful or ultimately proves to be safe is not the point. What is critical to the issue is that many people believe it to be harmful, and now their sanctuary, along with their peace of mind, is denied them. Nor does it matter how little you may care what government, corporations, and hackers know about what you do in your home. What matters is that the safeguards protecting others who do care must remain in place.

And forget the argument that people are free to go somewhere else. In our current economy most people in this province who have a job and a mortgage have no choice but to stay where they are and do what BC Hydro dictates. For populated areas, supplied electricity has become more essential to life than supplied water. Urban regulations will not permit alternative sources. And those who could legally go off-the grid can rarely afford the expense. BC Hydro is a government-established monopoly, so there are no competitors to turn to for service provision. Under these circumstances, the only protection an individual has are our elected representatives. Except in this case,  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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John Ranns, Editorial on Smart Meters, contd.

regardless of party, they have determined that what is good for business is more important than longestablished individual rights.

Recently, politicians of all description prominently displayed poppies and paid homage to the sacrifices made by previous generations who understood that to maintain a free system over time it is necessary for certain principles to be inviolate. Government must conform to the principle rather than change the principle to accommodate the wishes of whoever happens to

be in power. It is why we have Constitutions.

Unfortunately many politicians these days don’t seem to think that way. They do not recognize that our jobs are not only to represent our electorate, majority and minority, but also to serve as guardians of the free system. Sadly we seem all too willing to thoughtlessly forfeit our freedom for the latest of fleeting conveniences that our runaway technology may provide.

John Ranns, Mayor, District of Metchosin (Southern Vancouver Island, B.C.) 

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS

Water cut offs in Detroit a violation of human rights Maude Barlow, May 26, 2014 [QUOTE & LINK]

I recently visited Detroit, Michigan and am shocked and deeply disturbed at what I witnessed. I went as part of a Great Lakes project where a number of communities and organizations around the basin are calling for citizens to come together to protect the Great Lakes as a Lived Commons, a Public Trust and a Protected Bioregion. We are also deeply worried about the threat of extreme energy such as diluted bitumen from the tar sands of Alberta and fracked oil and fracking wastewater from North Dakota being transported by pipeline and rail near the lakes and on barges on the lakes and are calling for a ban of these dangerous toxins around and on the Great Lakes.

But the people of Detroit face another sinister enemy.

Every day, thousands of them, in a city that is situated right by a body of water carrying one fifth of the world's water supply, are having their water ruthlessly cut off by men working for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Most of the residents are African American and two thirds of the cut offs involve children, which means that in some cases, child welfare authorities are moving in to remove children from their homes as it is a requirement that there be working utilities in all homes housing children.

People are given no warning and no time to fill buckets, sinks and tubs. Sick people are left without running water and running toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe and parents cannot cook. Is this a small number of victims? No. The water department has decreed that it will turn the water off to all 120,000 residences that owe it money by the end of the summer although it has made no such threat to the many corporations and institutions that are in arrears on their bills as well. How did it come to this? […]

READ IN FULL: http://www.canadians.org/blog/water-cut-offsdetroit-violation-human-rights

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Barlow a jurist on the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal in Montreal From May 29 to June 1, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) was held in Montreal for the first hearing of an international opinion tribunal on the Canadian mining industry. Close to 200 people gathered at McGill University for the opening of the tribunal and presentations from the eight jurists. The members of the jury would hear testimonies on the 29th and 30th, with their final judgement to be delivered on June 1, 2014.

The Canadian Religious Conference reports (www.crc-canada.org/en/node/1392): "The Tribunal is meant to be an instrument for research, visibility and exchange for peoples and communities affected by mining activities in Canada and abroad.

Witnesses and experts will be invited to testify before a jury composed of public figures from various countries and with diverse professional backgrounds and expertise. It will be the first session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to be held in Canada."

And the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal website (www.tppcanada.org/?lang=en) notes, "The Tribunal will examine the role and responsibility of mining companies and the Canadian government in the violation of human and environmental rights in Latin America through the emblematic cases of Pascua Lama (Barrick Gold) in Chile-Argentina; Escobal (Tahoe Resources) in Guatemala; San Martin (Goldcorp) in Honduras; Payback (Blackfire Exploration) and La Platosa (Excellon Resources) in Mexico."

LINK: http://canadians.org/blog/barlow-jurist-permanentpeoples-tribunal-montreal 

www.dialogue.ca

“The Crown Versus Earth”

Supreme Court hears Grassy Narrows' legal case for Treaty rights and against clear-cut logging in Ontario ON’s new plan for clearcut logging at Grassy Narrows looms RELEASE, May 15, 2014, Ottawa – Today the Su-

preme Court of Canada will hear Grassy Narrows’ legal case for Treaty rights and against clearcut logging. The case challenges Ontario's jurisdiction to unilaterally award logging and mining licenses on a vast tract of Treaty 3 lands north of the English River (the Keewatin Lands). The case, called Keewatin v.

MNR, has been winding its way through the courts for fourteen years.

In Treaty 3, signed in 1873, Canada promised to respect the right of the Ojibway to hunt and fish in their territory.

However, Ontario continues to plan for clearcut logging throughout Grassy Narrows’ Territory that will seriously limit Grassy Narrows’ rights, and has finalized a new 10 year Forest Management Plan for

Grassy Narrows’ Territory that includes numerous large clearcuts permitted by Ontario against Grassy Narrows' will. The new plan was scheduled to take effect in April 2014, but has been delayed due to a request for environmental assessment and widespread opposition including by grassroots Grassy Narrows youth and Ontario Regional Chief Beardy.

We hope the Supreme Court will agree that the original intent of our Treaty with Canada must be upheld to protect our way of life,” said Chief Roger Fobister Sr. of Grassy Narrows.

Read full Press Release, LINK: http://freegrassy.net/2014/05/15/supreme-court-hears-grassynarrows-legal-case-for-treaty-rights-and-against-clearcutlogging/

More information: http://freegrassy.net/2014/05/11/grassyscc/ Contacts: Joseph Fobister: 807-407-2745; Ramsey Hart: 613-298-4745; Robert Janes: 250.888.5269 

Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project D. A. (Don) Harrison, Ladysmith BC

It is doubtful that there are very many people in Canada that are not aware of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project, whether pro or con.

Mr. Nathan Cullen, member of parliament (NDP), representing the Skeena Bulkley Valley constituency, is in the midst of holding meetings at various places in B.C. regarding the advisability of the Enbridge Northern Gateway project.

I attended his meeting in Duncan on March 22, ‘14 and the huge meeting hall was packed wall to wall, with standing room only. Mr. Cullen’s presentation was very good, however it became clear near the end of the meeting that there was a large number of people that were not familiar with the many natural environmental problems of the B.C. North coast area.

The North coast of B.C. commences north of Port Hardy and continues to the Alaska panhandle. I worked for the B.C. Forest Service, stationed in Prince Rupert from 1952 until 1957, and my job took me to almost every part of this vast Spirit Bear area.

The first problem with loading oil in Kitimat will be www.dialogue2.ca

the navigation of the T1 super tankers in the area, also the incredible tides and weather that ships will face.

First, let’s take the tides. I have seen a 24-foot rise in the tidal water in the Prince Rupert Harbour. During these very large tidal conditions, the water runs through the channels adjacent to Kitimat like a river.

If one then looks at the size of the new T1 super Tankers – as well as the area of channels after leaving Kitimat – it becomes clear that choosing Kitimat as a loading facility is almost lunacy.

Second, let’s take a look at the T1 super tankers. There are presently 4 of these tankers and China is building 4 more. They are 1250 feet long, 223 feet wide; and, when fully loaded with 3-million-166-thousand barrels of oil, they are over 80 feet deep in the water. To give readers a visual comparison of this size let’s stand one of these tankers on it’s end along side the Empire State Building. One will find that the tanker is 11 feet 9 inches taller than the Empire State Building.

If one of these tankers hits a jagged rock or reef and commences leaking oil on one of the large incoming tides, it will not matter how modern the cleanup equipment is because the fast-flowing tidal water  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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D.A. Harrison, Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project, contd.

will carry that oil from the mouth of the Skeena river all the way south to Bella Bella, in a matter of hours – and long before any cleanup equipment can be mobilized. Enbridge has admitted there will be a 9 to 14 percent chance of an oil spill, which, in my humble opinion, is a totally unacceptable risk.

Further to this, keep in mind that China will be the customer for this oil. When one considers that China has at least 3 of these T1 super tankers and placing orders for at least 4 more, among which it is rumoured the length will increase to 1500 feet, there is another

problem looming on the horizon. That problem will undoubtedly be China insisting on the oil being delivered F.O.B. ship alongside dock in Kitimat. If and when this happens, the ownership of the oil transfers to China – and Enbridge will be “off the hook” for any maritime cleanup if a spill occurs.

If any reader believes that China will clean up any of its spilled oil, I am offering that person, very cheap – a toll bridge which will make him/her rich collecting tolls.

Regards, D.A. (Don) Harrison, Ladysmith BC 

“Have Computer Will Write”~ Jeremy Arney The Senate as a House of Sober Second Thought Jeremy Arney, Victoria BC

This was sent to every senator.

Ladies and Gentlemen, You were all appointed to the Senate by the last few Prime Ministers, to be part of the House of Sober Second Thought and I would encourage you to be just that.

While I do understand that there might be a certain feeling of debt for your appointments due to past services to one party or another from Progressive Conservative to Liberal to Conservative Party of Canada, you do all have one thing in common, and that is that you are employed by the people of Canada to act in their best interests. That is why you have the designation of the House of Sober Second Thought.

Perhaps now more than any other time in our country’s history we, the people of Canada, need you to be just that.

At this time a Bill which affects the way we conduct elections here in Canada is being rushed through the process and, indeed after a mere 90 days (including time allotment at all stages) will soon be presented to you for full consideration, as opposed to the pre study process your Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee has just performed. That Committee’s report to the other place has resulted in some minor cosmetic amendments at best. I should point out that your report is responsible for those amendments, not any other presentations made by Canadians, the opposition parties or even Elections Canada – at any stage.

This Bill C-23 [The “Fair Elections Act”], as you are no doubt aware, was presented without any consulta10 dialogue

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tion with you at the Senate, Opposition MPs, Elections Canada or (at least 71% of) the Canadian people. We are not impressed with the changes proposed to the way we conduct elections or our ability or inability in some cases to cast our votes.

At a time when our administration is boasting about our so called democratic process and urging other countries to follow our example we are being subjected to processes here at home that are against our own Charter of Freedoms and Rights – particularly section three – and will almost certainly face a constitutional challenge. At this time it is proposed that Canada will send 500 monitors or observers to the Ukraine for their imminent election at an undisclosed cost, yet here at home we have this controversy about our own elections of the future.

When this Bill C-23 arrives at your place, I urge you to put aside partisan feelings or perceived patronage obligations and do what needs to be done for the people of Canada, and show us that this constant talk of reform or abolition of the Senate is not a good thing for Canada because we need a House of Sober Second Thought.

Now is a very good time for you to show Canadians that is what you are.

Thank you for your time Jeremy Arney, Interim Leader of CAP Jeremy Arney [EMAIL: iamjema@gmail.com ] Jeremy’s blog: http://jeremyarneysblog.wordpress.com/ 

UBC Department of Political Science: An informative link regarding the Fair Elections Act: http://www.democracy.arts.ubc.ca/fairelectionsact/ www.dialogue.ca

“Prévoyance”

Observations from Erik Andersen, Gabriola Island BC

Trade deals and neo-colonialism

As Robin Mathews has so eloquently written in the past, our Federal GovernErik Andersen ments, starting with Dief and Pearson, have allowed Canadians to be cast in the role of a colony. After escaping from that role with GB they were not able to hold on to independence as a core Canadian value. All the so-called passion for "free trade" is a camouflage for colonialism. NAFTA and all fellow traveller agreements serve the interests of Canadians last. In the 70s, the prevailing political wisdom held that by diminishing corporate taxation the country would benefit from new and large investments in productivity and technologies. That has not happened and, to the contrary, foreign folks have just been buying up our primary commodities. You have a lot of different politicians to thank for that.

Corporate Welfare…

Founded in 1944, EDC (Export Development Canada) is a Crown Corporation whose mandate is to support the Canadian exports of Canadian companies, in order to "develop Canada’s competitiveness in the international marketplace." The initial funds to EDC were provided via Canadian taxpayers.

Given that national export credit agencies like EDC support risky endeavors, which would otherwise face high commercial bank rates, EDC funding provides – as described by the Canadian civil society coalition the Halifax Initiative – "an inherent subsidy from government." While EDC's mandate is to finance Canadian commercial activity abroad, the relative size of financing to Enbridge, Trans-Canada and other oil and gas

exporters stands out among listed transactions. This particularly so given the profitability of these firms specifically, and Canadian oil & gas exporters in general.

An insight as to how the game is played with your tax dollars. Of particular note is how much and when Enbridge was given a handout because of a broken pipeline. Corporate shareholder welfare. In May of this year, Enbridge received funds in amounts roughly equivalent to the enormous cost of the clean-up of their accident at Kalamazoo, Michigan -- somewhere between $500 million and $ONE BILLION. Policies that are destroying Canadians’ country!

The play books for Canadian governments in the last and current decades is to engage in contracting for public projects using the credit rating of governments in combination with the P3 model. About 10 years ago Riskmetrics of New York showed how the corporate players in the model were essentially crooks and fraudsters. Even with this information, all our governments have continued to use this model.

The difficulty is that with the use of accounting trickery governments don't need to show these debts as debts so it is not on the public's radar. This practice, in combination with deliberately reducing corporate taxation, results in governments facing a diminishment of their capacity to fund many of the services Canadians have grown to think of as what makes Canada a great place to live. The practice of "Photo-op Politics" is spoiling our country. 

BOOK: David Graeber on Consensus, Deliberation and Democracy The Democracy Project – A History, A Crisis, A Movement: 2013 book by David Graeber.

“Consensus is an attempt to create a politics founded on the principle of reasonableness – one that, as feminist philosopher Deborah Heikes has pointed out, requires not only logical consistency, but ‘a measure of good judgment, self-criticism, a capacity for social interaction, and a willingness to give and consider reasons.’ Genuine deliberation, in short. As a facilitation trainer would likely put it, it requires the ability to listen well enough to understand perspectives that are fundamentally different from one’s own, and then try www.dialogue.ca

to find pragmatic common ground without attempting to convert one’s interlocutors completely to one’s own perspective. It means viewing democracy as common problem solving among those who respect the fact that they will always have, like all humans, somewhat incommensurable points of view.

“This is how consensus is supposed to work: the group agrees, first, to some common purpose. This allows the group to look at decision making as a matter of solving common problems. Seen this way, a diversity of perspectives … can also be an enormous resource.” (p. 202-203), The Democracy Project, ISBN: 978-0-8129-9356-1 VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 11

Thomas Piketty – “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”

Why Economist Thomas Piketty has scared the pants off the American right (Link from Stephanie McDowall)

By Lynn Stuart Parramore, Alternet.org [QUOTE & LINK] Apr. 21, 14: To the horror of conserva-

tives, the public is rushing out to buy this weighty economic treatise – “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” – the book is #1 on Amazon and has hit the New York Times bestseller list. A public that not only intuits conservative economic nonsense but has the detailed information to back up that gut instinct is just too awful for words.

Piketty in Elysium:

By John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus [FPIP], May 21, 2014

Concerns about economic inequality are driving summer blockbusters and New York Times best sellers. When will they start driving our politics? […] Hollywood projects our dreams and fears. In the past, our cinematic apocalypses have reflected our obsessions with nuclear holocaust and environmental degradation. We’re certainly still worried about those fates – along with pandemics and zombies – but gross inequality now competes for our attention. The Occupy movement no longer squats in our squares. The indignados have faded into the European woodwork. But the analysis and demands of the 99 percent have managed to trickle up.

Consider the new book by Thomas Piketty, the French [QUOTE & LINK]

Piketty is scaring the right because he is a serious researcher and a calm, disciplined observer who writes in measured tones. But for conservatives who have based the last several decades of economic discussion on mythology, this dose of reality has come at them like a chilling blast of Arctic air.

Let them have their hysteria. It's a testimony to the utter bankruptcy of their ideas. […]

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/Alternet-Piketty 

economist. In his analysis of tax records in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Piketty shows how capitalists have run away with capitalism and left the workers behind. In more formal terms, when the rate of return on capital outstrips the growth rate of the economy, inequality rises.

Moreover, Piketty shows how public policy has had a profound impact on wealth and poverty in society. The trends associated with the rise of finance capitalism and the spread of globalization have certainly encouraged the consolidation of a class of super-rich and the erosion of wages for the middle and working classes. But certain governments – France, Germany, Japan – have used tax and welfare policies to redistribute the wealth without any appreciable impact on growth. […]

LINK: http://fpif.org/piketty-elysium/ 

‘Savage capitalism is back – and it will not tame itself’ “Capitalists spread prosperity only when threatened by global rivalry, radical movements and the risk of uprisings at home.”

– David Graeber, author of “The Democracy Project” and “Debt: the first 5000 years.”

[QUOTE & LINK]

David Graeber - In The Guardian, May 30, 2014.

[Back in the 90s,…] there was a series of assumptions everybody had to accept in order even to be allowed to enter serious public debate. They were presented like a series of self-evident equations. "The market" was equivalent to capitalism. Capitalism meant exorbitant wealth at the top, but it also meant rapid technological progress and economic growth. Growth meant increased prosperity and the rise of a middle class.

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The rise of a prosperous middle class, in turn, would always ultimately equal stable democratic governance.

A generation later, we have learned that not one of these assumptions can any longer be assumed to be correct.

The real importance of Thomas Piketty's (1) blockbuster, Capital in the 21st Century,

is that it demonstrates, in excruciating detail (and this remains true despite some predictable petty squabbling(2)) that, in the case of at least one core equation, the numbers simply don't add up. Capitalism does not contain an inherent tendency to civilise itself. Left to its own devices, it can be expected to create rates of return on investment so much higher than overall rates of economic growth that the only possible result  www.dialogue2.ca

David Graeber (Quote): ‘Savage capitalism is back – and it will not tame itself’, contd.

will be to transfer more and more wealth into the hands of a hereditary elite of investors, to the comparative impoverishment of everybody else.

In other words, what happened in western Europe and North America between roughly 1917 and 1975 – when capitalism did indeed create high growth and lower inequality – was something of a historical anomaly. There is a growing realisation among economic historians that this was indeed the case. […]

No doubt many factors were involved, but almost everyone seems to be ignoring the most obvious. The period when capitalism seemed capable of providing broad and spreading prosperity was also, precisely, the period when capitalists felt they were not the only game in town: when they faced a global rival in the Soviet bloc, revolutionary anti-capitalist movements from Uruguay to China, and at least the possibility of workers' uprisings at home. In other words, rather than high rates of growth allowing greater wealth for capitalists to

Ultimate Power

READ IN FULL AT THE GUARDIAN.COM: LINK: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/savagecapitalism-back-radical-challenge

Footnote links: (1) http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomaspiketty-capital-surprise-bestseller (2) http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/thomas-pikettypulled-reinhart-rogoff.html

“The Fifth Columnist”

Michael Neilly, Dunrobin ON

Like a lot of Canadians, I’m beginning to feel trapped by heating costs. We live in the country, so our choices are limited: oil, propane, electricity or wood. After a chimney fire in early March – we were trying to save money by burning wood – we lost our appetite for wood fires!

We were burning oil initially but because our insurance company started surcharging us for our indoor oil tank, a make known for catastrophic failures, we switched to propane. Propane was cheaper at the time, too, starting at 68 cents in the fall. Who knew that the propane industry would sell its product to American farmers to dry their corn, that the price would almost double in response and farmers in Eastern Ontario would be wearing sweaters and toques to save money?

The purchase of an electric furnace for supplementary heat in 2000 now seems foolish in light of skyrocketing electricity costs, thanks to ex-Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal Party: Costs have gone through the roof because we buy green power at inflated costs, and sell cheaper surplus power to the United States at a loss. www.dialogue2.ca

spread around, the fact that capitalists felt the need to buy off at least some portion of the working classes placed more money in ordinary people's hands, creating increasing consumer demand that was itself largely responsible for the remarkable rates of economic growth that marked capitalism's "golden age".

Since the 1970s, as any significant political threat has receded, things have gone back to their normal state: that is, to savage inequalities, with a miserly 1% presiding over a social order marked by increasing social, economic and even technological stagnation.

David Graber (UK)

It seems that no matter what we do, Canadians are being held hostage. I think the future for Canada is the residential fuel cell, which can make electricity and hot water, using a fuel such as hydrogen or gas. The appeal for us living in the country is that we frequently have power failures, and this means no power to drive the furnace.

My first recollection of the mention of fuel cells was during the American space program. Now, here and there, I read about fuel cells turning up in city buses and automobiles. But the problem of powering and heating a modern home seems largely ignored. The future, as I see it, has homes powered completely off the grid, powered by fuel cells.

The cell’s fuel source is a bit of a concern for me, due to aforementioned propane shortage here in Eastern Ontario. What other fuels, such as methanol or ethanol, could be produced locally and used in a fuel cell?

Some years ago, I recall reading about fuel cells powered by hydrogen liberated from a boron salt, sodium borohydride, used for bleaching pulp. The byproducts of the process were water and powder.

Too bad that distant Turkey is rich in boron!

If Stephen Harper wants to be re-elected, or if the  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 13

Michael Neilly, Ultimate Power, contd.

other two jokers want a shot, we need a plan, a vision.

And the vision is homes heated and powered with residential fuel cells, and the Harmonized Sales Tax (both the provincial and federal components) removed on all heating fuels, since heating our homes is an absolute necessity, not a luxury. We were told originally that the GST would not be applied to essentials and surely heating fuels qualify in this regard.

To me, this is where Canada, this cold, grey land, a land with snow on the ground six months of year in places, should be headed. Spare us the platitudes

about respecting the environment and instead give us something to stay warm. By all means develop the oil sands, build pipelines in the interim, but focus on locally produced energy (and food) for the longer term, because those long global supply lines can be easily broken by weather and war. Can it be so hard for someone in power to even utter these words?

Mike Neilly

dialogue always welcome: michael.neilly@bell.net



[Editor’s note: for a quick refresher on fuel cells, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell/ ]

Robin Mathews Uncut

The Crumbling Mainstream Press and Media in Canada. Part Three.

The CBC. Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall.

Robin Mathews, Vancouver BC

It was “The National” and it was April 24.

I don’t very often watch television, and so the experience was shocking – to watch on a large screen what is believed by many to be one of the most informative news productions in Canada.

Not a television watcher, I saw – perhaps – what others don’t normally see: “Infopropaganda” – a combination of show business, technological sleight-ofhand, “celebrity,” dress-up, make-up, and cut-to-time program shaping. “News” came last. “News” was buried under sentimental posturing and “expertise”.

That show revealed, perhaps, major problems that haunt the CBC – problems to a large extent created and/or exacerbated by the hatred the Harper neoliberals have for public broadcasting.

You could see it on “The National” – You see it on TV – You hear it on radio.

The CBC pretends it isn’t in a world in which government hates public responsibility, though that condition is visible everywhere. The CBC pretends it mustn’t fight back to preserve the integrity of public broadcasting in Canada. It mirrors an attitude often shown by Opposition parties – that it exists in a normal political climate not in a climate in which it faces a full-scale attack on democracy in Canada. It acts as if it isn’t in the sights of a neo-fascist government that wants to wreck all public responsibility and all public service institutions … on the way to unlimited power and unquestioned authority.

That was stunningly and embarrassing clear when Peter Mansbridge introduced the matter of the 2011 14 dialogue

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Robocall Report by Yves Côté, Commissioner of Elections Canada. His Report – Côté admits – was stymied by refusals to cooperate and huge, unnecessary delays, largely on the part of the Conservative Party. He declares there is not information enough to begin criminal charges in the matter. How can he know?

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch says simply: “the Commissioner made the wrong decision”. The Commissioner couldn’t demand cooperation with the investigation (a huge flaw in Elections Canada powers), but he could have reported weekly throughout the investigation that he was being blocked, and by whom. Had he done that over the three years, he might well have received considerably more cooperation than he got. Instead, he acted, it would seem, like one of the boys in the club: make believe you’re able to investigate; make believe you can take no initiative; make believe you can’t speak about your investigation and the people blocking it; make believe you are much more hampered than you need be; then make a Report that looks as if it were written by someone in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The whole thing was as mawkish and ill-handled as it could be. Was it those things intentionally?

The only thing worse was the treatment that the release of the Report got on CBC’s “The National” on April 24.

All participants, from Peter Mansbridge on, acted as if the Report was all there is to say about the corruption involved. No one reminded the viewers that the Conservative Party of Canada pleaded guilty to election  www.dialogue.ca

Robin Mathews, The CBC. Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall, contd.

violations in the 2006 election – after fighting Elections Canada for five years.

No one reminded viewers that the Conservative Party of Canada was found in violation of Robocalling rules in 2013 and paid $78,000.00 in fines to the CRTC in April of 2013. Trying to interfere in the objective Electoral Boundary changes in Saskatchewan, the Conservative Party of Canada oversaw thousands of illegitimate Robocalls in Saskatchewan. The only reason it didn’t face criminal charges is because the Conservative government resists all regulation of electoral violation and the bringing of such violations clearly into the Criminal Code.

In the midst of the phoniest attempt at fraudulent legislation in the last half century – The (Un)fair Elections Act – Yves Côté produced what must seem to many, besides Duff Conacher, as the wrong decision in the 2011 Robocall Scandal “investigation”.

One would expect that “The National” would have provided an anatomy of election fraud and violation in the last eight years. (Peter Mansbridge’s “Introduction”.) And … that it would have placed the Yves Côté decision within that frame. Not at all. What the public got was, to my mind, a piece of amateur theatre so bad that I thanked the gods of communication that I don’t watch television. Chantal Hebert – in my opinion, looking as if she just had her hair dyed black – acted as if she is a mixture of Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Lady Macbeth.

With the apparent cooperation of everyone else on the show – except the journalist from The Huffington Post – Ms. Hebert asserted that journalists make mistakes and they would all have to step back … and even apologize for their attitudes to the 2011 Robocall scandal. No criticism of Côté. No placing of the investigation. No facts. As she – metaphorically speaking – rolled her eyes and beat her breast the dreary little piece of theatre played itself out.

The representative from Huffington Post tried to enter criticism of the nonsense in front of her. But she seemed, obviously, to be considered of a lower order in the group that considers present issues.

When she attempted to speak, Peter Mansbridge cut her off. No time.

I am describing a situation as I saw it. I mean no insult to the Huffington Post journalist. She seemed to me unfit for the job, inexperienced, too wordy, not www.dialogue2.ca

able to dislodge the others though she had the best case. I couldn’t help but think that “The National” has no intention of placing a more excellent person in the place she fills.

That speaks to the larger game of the CBC. Its panels are tired, rarely using really sharp and informed people. There are hundreds capable but they never get time on the CBC. Bloggers all over the country are better than most commentators/critics on CBC. Those non-CBC voices are never used on CBC. Instead, Canadians watch Rex Murphy. He is a CBC regular who the CBC pretends is an independent, outside contractor. He provides, on the rare occasions I can bring myself to watch him, regular doses of reactionary commentary valuable to the Harper forces. No more need be said….

I have been saying things here as if all was impressionistic response. But a number of things are clear. The CBC won’t do its job. Whether from fear or for other reasons, it repeatedly, throughout its programming – from The Current, As It Happens, The 180, The Sunday Edition, “The National” … and on, and on – does the same thing. Whether speaking of Cuba, lawsuits involving El Salvador, issues in the Ukraine or Syria, Conservative violations of trust and decency in Canada, the CBC refuses to ask real questions informatively and responsibly. It refuses to have hard-hitting, historically informed commentators. That fact was screechingly clear on “The National”, April 24, 2014.

Just for instance, Jim Brown of The 180 allowed Preston Manning (Brown didn’t interview someone opposed, of course) to make outrageously reactionary statements, without asking an intelligent question.

(April 8, 2014) As Manning said such hyper-stupid things as that pipelines wouldn’t go through without demand and that decisions by government must be accepted by the people or the rule of law is undermined, Jim Brown accepted. In the face of a government that misinforms and gags Canadians every day, Manning insisted Canadians must obey a trust factor in relation to government.

Not a single probing question was asked by Jim Brown then (and when facing The Oil Industry representatives or people one might call ‘powerful,’ my recording is that Jim Brown NEVER asks a probing question, ever).

When Anna Maria Tremonti finally had a good, intelligent analyst on the history that brought the Ukraine  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 15

Robin Mathews, The CBC. Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall, contd.

to the state it had reached by the April 9, 2014 broadcast, Ms. Tremonti got the speaker in and out without a serious question asked. It was as if she was afraid of letting the analyst say more for fear he might … upset … someone. Keep quiet. Get rid of the speaker as soon as possible. Don’t let anyone suggest the U.S./NATO have anything to do with the mess in the Ukraine. Don’t let anyone say the Harper attacks on Russia are the idiocies of a kneejerk reactionary scarecrow waving his arms in a field where no crows fly.

Ms. Off, of As It Happens (April 2, 2014) interviewed in Mons, Belgium, a person from Command Centre of NATO who informed her that physical takeovers are no longer acceptable (in relation to the Crimea, I believe).

Ms. Off didn’t ask what that meant about the War in Iraq, the smashing of Libya, the NATO War (unapproved by the UN) to take over Kosovo ... and the endless sabre rattling over Iran. From Ms. Off, not a probing or serious question!!!

The examples of huge CBC failure to inform Canadians multiply – until one comes to believe the Corporation has thrown in the towel and is willing to crawl on its belly before the Harper cabinet. If that is the case, and the CBC believes it must abase itself, must flatter the Harper neo-fascists … then it has gone to the wall and is its own destroyer.

That is because the adversities of history have given

the CBC a chance to do brilliant and heroic things and to be an invaluable part of Canadian history in the first quarter of the 21st century.

To answer the thuggish cuts to its funding, the CBC should cut where necessary to increase News staff, to launch rapier-like investigative reporting, to call in brilliantly informed and critical commentators, and to bare the democracy-destroying corruption in Canada.

If only the CBC would deal with the news that matters in Canada now – at this moment…. If two reporters at the Ottawa Citizen can expose the election corruption of the Harper goons, then the CBC could do fifty times more. Instead it masks, and fluffs, and pads, and sentimentalizes, and avoids, and misleads, and fails to report or to ask central questions.

Public broadcasting has gone to the wall, because the CBC hasn’t the guts to be what it should be for Canadians. Weep. Mourn. Wail. Tear your hair.

Lament. You are cursed by the fear and self-loathing and cowardice of people who are especially chosen to protect democracy in Canada … and who refuse to do their job.

– Robin Mathews, Vancouver

See Parts 1 and 2 (and 3) of Robin Mathews’ “The Crumbling Mainstream Press and Media in Canada” on the Dialogue website: www.dialogue2.ca/columnist-robin-mathews-uncut.html 

“What was, What is and What might be…”

Canada – the Internet – and the next federal election Sharon Lawrence, Saanichton BC

Being older than 54, I think it helps to remember some of the past in Canada because it gives proof of how things have changed for the worse. But the Internet has been my freedom ride – I can choose alternate views and find information from books I couldn't afford to buy.

Plus, it opens a whole world of reliable/unreliable data and forces me to examine more closely.

Just imagine being locked into Fox News only.

Russia Today has given better info than our own Globe & Mail. Reading comments on articles is both interesting and infuriating, but it shows the diverse views ... a polarized Canada.

My only fear is that consuming all this info, pro/con current views, I might become entrenched in halfbaked views (I'm not a scientist, not a statistician, not 16 dialogue

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an historian, not a CEO insider ...) and endlessly waste time at this computer, worrying about what 'might be' – and miss what 'is'.

Thoughts about the next election

For the past eight years, so many groups have seen the ills of Harper&Co. Money and Media cooperation have kept him in power. But he doesn't have the majority of Canadians behind him. Via 'divide & conquer,' he has disrupted our crown corporations, fired vital people from our civil service, and refused to answer questions from anywhere. Oligarchy.

Unfortunately, people don't know the details inside omnibus bills, but they sure know that Harper is sneaky & mean (oops, 'decisive’). People also know that Harper is 'the boss', no matter what, and that doesn't go over well. Elections Canada still (after  www.dialogue2.ca

Sharon Lawrence, Canada – the Internet – and the next federal election, contd.

red herrings such as 'voter ID') has not the powers to investigate, reveal and prosecute. We are losing our basic democratic 'rights & privileges.'

With most people not impressed with Harper&Co – and perhaps unsure of inexperienced Trudeau and fearful of NDP 'socialism' – they may want independents or other parties best known in their regions.

Personally, I figure a minority government, with many different stripes, would at least force proper debates and dismantling of omnibus bills. We have a long way to go – to scrape back the damage Harper has done.

For me, I've decided it is too short a time for $$$$ to be raised in heralding a new party with better ideas which have no time to educate the public. Also, media will ostracize/delete them from any public platforms.

Obliterate them.

Several years ago I thought one way would be to join a party, put in my two cents, introduce ideas, etc. But, one has to know the 'in crowd' to be heard, or lobby for resolution acceptance, etc. And one has to like doing that.

When one goes against the 'leader' on an issue, one is also ostracized ... not a 'team player' ... no support.

At this point, in the Saanich/Gulf Islands riding, the Green Party Canada (not the BC Greens) is most open to reform and their members are not the aggressive, nasty types. I do know that they listen. I figure they have a better platform and a good leader, so I'll stick with them.

If any of you have a party that has a great local representative, I'd go to some meetings, throw out some ideas, and see if they best suit what you want.

If you're in a riding where all parties are abysmal, maybe that is the ideal place to support an independent candidate – maybe lots of others will go for it, too.

I hate political 'expediency,' a strategy used by aggressive leaders ... but we have been thrown into the pit and must fight, and we have not the capital to buy our way out, so perhaps finding the best candidate, and influencing by pressure of numbers, maybe we can claw back some sanity in the next election.

Alberta Caribou habitat to be sold to energy industry

Environmental commission wants probe of B.C. salmon farms

[QUOTE/LINK] ReaderSupportedNews.org - The

Alberta government is planning to sell off crucial caribou habitat to the energy industry just days after a federal scientific panel said the herds were in immediate danger of vanishing completely. Starting May 21, 2014, Alberta Energy is to auction off 1,700 hectares of land north of Grande Cache — home to the remaining members of several herds of mountain caribou. A federal scientific panel ruled earlier this month that those herds should be assessed as endangered, the highest level of threat available under Canadian law, because their numbers have tumbled by about 60 per cent over the last decade.

READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/RSN23673 

Sharon Lawrence, Saanichton BC 

Mark Hume The Globe and Mail, May 22, 2014

[QUOTE/LINK] VANCOUVER - Officials at an environ-

ment commission established under the North American free-trade agreement are calling for an investigation into whether Canada is enforcing pollution laws around salmon farms in British Columbia.

In a statement released Thursday, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation said there are grounds to investigate complaints “that Canada is failing to effectively enforce fish habitat protection and pollution prevention provisions … in relation to salmon aquaculture operations authorized by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in coastal B.C.” READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/GM18817899/ 

Texas family awarded $3 million for fracking damages [Recd from June Ross] Article from the LA Times; posted by Common Sense Canadian - LINK: http://tinyurl.com/CSC3mfrdam [QUOTE/LINK] In a landmark legal victory that centered

on fracking, a middle-class north Texas ranching family won nearly $3 million from a big natural gas company whose drilling, they contend, caused years of sickness, killed pets and livestock, and forced them www.dialogue2.ca

out of their home for months. Tuesday’s $2.95-million civil verdict by a six-person Dallas jury is thought to be the first of its kind in the nation. Other landowners have sued over drilling and reached settlements, but legal experts think this is the first jury verdict.

Read other International stories at CommonSense Canadian.ca: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/CSCintl  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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LINKS & COMMENTS FROM STEPHANIE MCDOWALL (NANAIMO) UN slams Canada over Natives’ rights

Scathing report. An uninterested and apathetic Canadian population has allowed this. We have been and still are... cruel. Corporations and the establishment benefit from racism towards Native Canadians as well because they want the resources on Native land claims. I am not aware of any Canadian politician stating this....at least not recently.

Why? We know the answer. – Stephanie LINK: www.presstv.com/detail/2014/05/13/362437/unslams-canada-over-natives-rights/

WTC 7 now a proven case of controlled demolition – PaulCraigRoberts.org Posting by 9/11 Consensus Panel Professor Daniele Ganser’s guest article on false flag attacks and his lecture on 9/11 will rescue you from the web of official lies spun by the government and presstitute media. LINK: www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/06/01/false-flagattacks-guest-article-professor-daniele-ganser-university-basel/

The latest research establishes that World Trade Center Building 7 was destroyed by controlled demolition.

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/PCR-wtc7-proven

A Floating Knowledge Archive for the Survival of People and Planet:

WEBSITE: www.thesparc.net TheSparc provides both scientists and the general public free open access to scientific papers that are important for the survival of people and planet. It offers authors the opportunity to reach the widest readership. It is a knowledge archive … TheSparc is a web resource aimed at providing free access to scientific reports important for the survival of people and planet. [e.g. Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize,” by GE Séralini et al, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology 2012, 50(11), 4221-31, and subsequently retracted by FCT, resulting in the letter of protest and Boycott.] Find all the above mentioned reports here LINK: www.thesparc.net/index.php

National Farmers Union re right to save seeds: petitions presented in Parliament

Tragic that more Canadians are not paying attention to this.

A shame our media is not properly informing Canadians about what is happening to our food supply and the potential for harm. Imagine farmers loosing the right to save seeds – a practise done for thousands of years.

LINK: www.nfu.ca/issue/petitions-presented-parliament

The petitioners call upon Parliament to refrain from making changes to the Seeds Act or the Plant Breeders' Rights Act through a bill that is currently before this House, Bill C-18.

They fear that it would further restrict farmers' rights and add to farmers' costs. They ask Parliament to enshrine the inalienable right of farmers & other Canadians to save, reuse, select, exchange, and sell seeds. Petitions presented by at least 30 Liberal and NDP MPs (From Feb. 25-May 28)

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SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO.4

How the West gassed thousands to death in Damascus | New Eastern Outlook

Tony Cartalucci: “Taken alone, (Seymour) Hersh’s latest report is damning. Taken together with two previous pieces, spanning a total of 7 years of analysis and investigative journalism, Hersh’s work paints a picture of a West engaged in a diabolical, premeditated conspiracy to mire Syria in a sectarian bloodbath for the purpose of achieving regime change in Damascus and undermining neighboring Iran. It becomes clear upon reading Hersh’s work, that the chemical attack in Damascus was not only perpetrated by the West, but was done to trigger a greater war on top of the carnage the West has already intentionally sown.

LINK: http://journal-neo.org/2014/04/19/how-the-westgassed-thousands-to-death-in-damascus/

On first visit to Gaza, UN official calls for end to Israeli blockade

Sent to MPs, party leaders: It is long past the time when you should have spoken out against what is happening to the Palestinian people, regardless of the Canadian Jewish lobby. It is devastating to many Canadians to witness how you have all compromised your moral/ ethical principals. It is also devastating to realize how afraid you all are of doing what is right. – Stephanie 17 April 2014 – On his first official visit to the Gaza Strip, Pierre Krähenbühl, the new head of the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, underscored the need to lift the seven-year Israeli blockade and end the “illegal collective punishment” unleashed on the population there. “Nothing prepares you for Gaza; no amount of UN humanitarian reports, no amount of newspaper articles, no amount of human rights investigations. None of these can adequately convey what the people here are going through; the profound sense of isolation and the sheer scale and depth of the suffering,” said Pierre Krähenbühl. […]

United Nations News Centre, 17 April 2014 - LINK: www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47604#>

Flight MH370: mystery cargo raises questions: From CLG (Citizens for Legitimate Government): LINK: www.legitgov.org/Flight-MH370-mystery-cargocontinues-raise-questions

Subject: Is Boko Haram a psy-op?

The first conspiracy theory I have read on this matter. – Stephanie "Many Nigerians wonder whether Boko Haram really exists.

The supposed radical Islamic organization has been blamed for the killings of thousands of people. Yet details about the group are so murky that many observers suspect it may be more mythical than real. According to one theory, the real killers are mercenaries paid to stage false-flag "Islamic terror" in order to justify foreign intervention in oil-rich Nigeria." […] LINK: http://presstv.com/detail/2014/05/14/362619/is-bokoharam-a-psyop/  www.dialogue.ca

“That’s My Take On It”

Facts about Genetically Engineered (GE) Foods – also called GMO foods

John Shadbolt, Acton ON Take a look at the dangers of GMO… FROM: www.psrast.org/  Animals have become seriously ill or died from GE foods  Hazardous genes from GE foods can become inserted into your own genes.  An unexpected poison in a GE food supplement killed 37 persons. The poison was not discovered because careful search for unexpected harmful substances was not made.  Unexpected dangerous substances may be present in GE foods. This is because the procedure for assessing the safety of GE foods is not designed to detect them. Most of soy and corn products in the US and Canada are GE and labelling is not required there. Organic products are reliably GE-free.

Top researchers confirm that the results of genetic

ngineering are unpredictable. This is why unexpected harmful substances may appear in GE food.  Scientists are being harassed if they tell the truth about GMO hazards. Research on GMO hazards is being suppressed and negative research reports have been destroyed. Scientist who say GMO-foods are safe are not seldom lying out of fear of becoming unemployed and unable to get any new research job. Read the alarming stories.

These are just a few of the alarming facts about GMO

foods. For more-: www.psrast.org/newsheadin.htm Source: Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology (PSRAST), WEBSITE: www.psrast.org/ From: John Shadbolt [ cdr000@primus.ca ] 

Speaking out against Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMO) Herb Spencer, Surrey BC

On April 3, the Peace Arch News (Black Press) published a letter from Ted Menzies of Crop Life Canada claiming that GMO crops were harmless so there was no point in demanding that all foods containing such artificial ingredients need be labelled. Mr Menzies claimed that, "all new crops undergo extensive safety reviews by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada." He also denies that there is any evidence that there should be a safety concern.

Readers should realize that Crop Life Canada is a lobbying organization, part of a multi-national business promotion lobby funded by the manufacturers, developers and distributors of "plant technology". These organizations are quietly funded by millions from such giant multi-national organizations, such as Monsanto, the principal maker of GMO products and 'Agent Orange' used in the Viet Nam war.

In spite of the extensive propaganda, independent scientists in Europe have banned many of these products as scientifically unsafe. Even scientists in Canada have blown the whistle on these products, but then they usually lose their jobs in Harper's anti-science, probusiness world. So-called regulatory agencies like Health Canada have been "captured" by the industry that they are supposed to regulate. Senior administrators from industry are appointed by government to www.dialogue.ca

misdirect the historical activity of such bodies. Inspectors are removed from manufacturers as government tries to save money by having such companies "regulate themselves". These "regulators" have been reduced to rubber-stamping "research" done by these polluters of our food, who typically only look to see if their additives cause an immediate poison reaction.

The last thing these (unscrupulous) scientists are looking for are long-term problems such as cancer or birth defects. This is the type of pseudo research that the tobacco companies used for years to divert attention from the cancer-causing effects of cigarettes. Unfortunately, there are immoral scientists, who will 'prove' anything for money.

There are now over 75,000 artificial chemicals being added into our food and environment since 1945; meanwhile cancer rates soar. while these poisoners resist all attempts by the consumers to make their own decisions by being told which foods contain GMO. These "maximizers of the bottom-line" are quite happy to impose the largest safety experiment in history on ignorant populations. People need to alert themselves to the quiet machinations of organizations like Crop Life and their high-paid lobbyists and propagandists, such as Mr. Menzies.

Dr. Herb Spencer, Surrey BC VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Water, Truth and Beauty

Masaru Emoto and the Mystery and Magic of Water Masaru Emoto calls himself “Missionary of Water.”

The following is from his website (link follows):

Masaru Emoto was born in Yokohama, Japan, in July 1943; he is a graduate of the Yokohama Municipal University's department of humanities and sciences, with a focus on International Relations. In 1986, he established the IHM Corporation in Tokyo. In October of 1992, he received certification from the Open International University as a Doctor of Alternative Medicine. Subsequently he was introduced to the concept of micro cluster water in the US and Magnetic Resonance Analysis technology. The quest thus began – to discover the mystery of water.

He undertook extensive research of water around the planet, not so much as a scientific researcher, but more from the perspective of an original thinker. At length, he realized that it was in the frozen crystal form, that water showed us its true nature. …

We all learn valuable life lessons at our own pace, but there is one basic truth we all learn early. Positive,

compassionate words comfort and heal; negative words and insults hurt. Until recently, we knew this only because we could feel it. Now we can actually see it. Thanks to the experimental work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, we can look to water, and its frozen crystals, to confirm the healing power of beautiful music, positive thinking, uplifting speech, and prayer.

In his various books, the first of which was published in 1999, Dr. Emoto, a doctor of Alternative Medicine, introduced the novel idea that water not only reflects the physical word around it (as when we use a placid lake or pond as a mirror), but it also reflects the consciousness of the being surrounding it. …

Dr. Emoto’s theories can be explored further by reading his books, The Hidden Messages in Water, The True Power of Water, The Secret Life of Water, Love Thyself, and now in his children’s books as well. His work is also presented in the movie, What the Bleep Do We know?

LINK: www.masaru-emoto.net/english/emoto.html



From: Citizens Demand Scientific, Academic & Political Integrity (CDSAPI) The Effect of Microwaves on the Central Nervous System Inge Hanle, Vancouver – Comment on the item that follows: When the utility companies, like BC Hydro presently – in obvious obedience to global strategy directives – insist that they know of “No Adverse Biological Effects” from exposure of low level EMFs and microwave transmission frequencies, they are definitely displaying either inexcusable ignorance or intentional deceit.

The following transcript from a 1965 report tells it all. They have known all along. Human health is obviously something that they are prepared to sacrifice to protect the technologies that they are determined to implement in their own vested interests.

The Effect of Microwaves on the Central Nervous System, paper by W. Bergman Translated from the German in 1965 for the Ford Motor Company [Link to the scanned 82-page document follows] [posted by Dr. Magda Havas, Associate Professor of Environmental & Resource Studies at Trent University, Peterborough ON ABSTRACT: The autonomic nervous system is affected by the microwaves of the centimeter wave length

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SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO.4

band. These waves affect circulation, respiration, temperature control, water balance, albumin & sugar concentration in the cerebro-spinal fluid, hydrogen ion concentration, EEG, GSR, sleep, conscious awareness, etc.

Depending on the applied dosage, these waves stimulate the sympathetic or parasympathetic system. Very small dosages produce analgesic effects; however, very large dosages are fatal. An undamped or modulated frequency is more effective than damped waves.

The biological effect of these waves results from the resonance absorption in the ganglia. There are indications that only higher harmonics, and not the fundamental frequency, produce biological effects. The shielding of the test subject by metal screens increases these effects; however, magnetic fields remove them.

Higher harmonics producing these biological effects have physical properties which are similar to those of the bio-electrical energy generated by the human body.

The mechanism of hypnosis is explained by the transmission of this energy.

READ IN FULL AT LINK: http://bit.ly/1h8fco1 

www.dialogue.ca

THE TOXIC IMPACTS OF OIL AND GAS INDUSTRIES We hear about the temporary economic benefits, but do we understand the long-term harm of becoming oil/gas/exportation dependent?

While the pipeline debate rages… Government pushes ahead with its fracking agenda [While Bill’s discussion includes his local context, the issues apply to all affected communities across Canada] Bill Woollam, Duncan (Vancouver Island) BC

I do believe that while the no-pipeline initiative and the climate debate are going on, the BC government is pushing ahead with an even more devastating 'natural gas development through hydraulic fracturing' initiative of their own. It explains their changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve to allow for extraction of natural gas “for the economic benefits of British Columbians”. Few citizens understand the immediate dangers to our drinking water posed by 'Fracking' for natural gas. Fracking on Vancouver Island is going to be a reality, if citizens remain unaware.

Discovering how the continuous corporate push for oil/gas-dependency impacts the quality of our water, soil, air, and sea-life for generations to come,(6) is something that encourages us all to rally for serious and necessary change.

Why is this topic so important today?

Because, when we understand that there is collateral damage of 'fracking' and 'bitumen extraction' and that natural gas extraction will soon be occurring on Vancouver Island, we homeowners and local concerned citizens can quickly empathize with those landowners and citizens already impacted by oil/gas pipelines and 'fracking sites' in other areas of North America.(8) I recently wrote to David Black, newspaper owner/ manager, in response to his support for the oil/gas pipelines and refinement industry. After watching the 'Gasland part 2' documentary,(9) even he had to admit the toxification of our aquifers by fracking for natural gas is, quote, "Alarming".

Freshwater systems contaminated by fracking

On Vancouver Island, the whole area from Chemainus to Parksville has shale gas, and a private company, Quicksilver, already has the mineral rights for it. A local resident recently wrote about the monetary significance of hydrocarbon extraction and exportation of natural gas. What many advocates of the oildependence industry seem to ignore completely is the short-sighted and toxic process by which ‘unconventional oil and gas sources’ are being extracted. This www.dialogue2.ca

process is known as ‘induced hydraulic fracturing’, or ‘fracking’ for short.

There is growing peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the harmful effects of shale gas development.(7) ‘Profracking’ opinions focus on the big bucks and ignore the detrimental effects on our limited, freshwater systems.

There are a million well sites in North America which have used fracking. A horizontal well in a shale formation can use between 7.5 million to 19 million litres of water. That water used for extraction in gas shale ‘plays’ becomes toxic by the addition of: water-based fracturing fluids mixed with friction-reducing additives; biocides to prevent microorganism growth and to reduce biofouling of the fractures; oxygen scavengers and other stabilizers to prevent corrosion of metal pipes; and acids that are used to remove drilling mud.

Eighty percent of this fracking fluid comes back to the surface and 20% stays in the shale excavation ‘play’.

This fracking fluid is highly toxic and contaminates local well-water, rivers, and underground water systems.

This is the part which outweighs the financial benefits of present ‘fracking’ and non-conventional oil extraction methods. Our North American water reserves are limited. Toxifying our limited water resources is insanity, to say the least. No amount of remuneration can justify contaminating underground water beds and surface-water courses for coming generations.

As of 2012, 2.5 million hydraulic fracturing jobs have been performed on oil and gas wells worldwide!

The US Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior are preparing a research plan for fracking that will include analysis of potential impacts to drinking water, the potential for spills and wastewater treatment. The agency oversees water quality through the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) but does not directly regulate fracking except where diesel fuel is used.(4) Fracking is still going on without proper oversight and accountable regulation by our governments. This is the danger.

For the last hundred years, water rights belong to the owner of the land. Tough luck for those landowners and city-dwellers downstream, since liability favors  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Bill Woollam, The Fracking Agenda, contd.

industry not local taxpayers. High cancer rates and damaging side-effects to human and animal life occur where tailing ponds and fracking fluid has escaped into underground and above-ground waterways.

How can we not seriously demand alternatives to oil/gas addiction and its collateral damage? There is money to be made and jobs to be had, but it requires focusing on developing those alternatives. Industry is not going to encourage that shift. And politicians today seem to serve industry and corporate interests, not the long-term health of the nation.

– Bill Woollam, templelife@hotmail.com, Tel. 250-746-0290 LINK: www.blissful-wisdom.com/contaminated-freshwatersystems-caused-by-fracking.html References: 1. “On Fracking” - a short, precise, well-researched rundown on fracking by C. Alexia Lane; order here: www.amazon.ca/On-Fracking-C-Alexia-Lane/dp/1927330807 2. Canada's Fractured View of Fracking:

www.canadianlawyermag.com/4971/Canadas-fractured-viewof-fracking.html 3. Fracking: Economic Boom or Environmental Danger? http://politicsandpolicy.org/article/fracking-economic-boom-orenvironmental-danger 4. Water Education: www.watereducation.org/doc.asp?id=2699 5. Troubled Waters - BC's Gas Boom: https://wildernesscommittee.org/fracking 6. Hydraulic Fracturing causes risks to water and health: www.canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/fracking%2 0Jan%202011.pdf 7. For research into peer-reviewed damage caused by 'fracking fluids' used in natural gas extraction, do an internet search on the title: “Surface and Groundwater Contamination Associated with Modern Natural Gas Development, PeerReviewed Literature 2011-2013” [See scientific review at: www.psehealthyenergy.org/#sthash.XMGMjc7S.dpuf ] 8. Google search: 1) Vancouver Island vs Texas Frackers - by Don Maroc; and 2) Andrew Nikiforuk: Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent 9. Documentary, Gasland, part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=96AEzQYangE 10. Documentary Tar Sands, Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiNgiPkF0TY 

Cost of Water will top gas prices soon. Why? Ray Scudder, Duncan BC

Why will the cost of water top the cost of gasoline soon? Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction on Vancouver Island and the rest of British Columbia contaminates our drinking water with millions of litres of toxic fracking fluid per drill site. While drawing on our fresh water sources to 'frack', we will be faced with clean, drinking water shortages, resulting in the cost of water rising dramatically over the next five years. Is this why, here, in one of the world's greatest rain forests we are paying (with our tax dollars) to install a water metering system across the province? Does hydraulic fracking explain why our precious Agricultural Land Reserve is having changes made: to enable the natural gas industry to extract across our province unimpeded?

Contaminating our water and making our land unusable for agriculture, from the long-term collateral damage of natural gas extraction: how can any responsible government allow this to continue to happen?

What happens when you can't draw a bath due to contaminated water, water shortage, or the high cost of water? What happens when wells, aquifers and rivers are contaminated due to leaking, toxic fracking fluid that is being forced into our underground shale plates?

You can make a difference, but first you must be aware of this travesty. Send a letter to your local paper and MLA stating your non-support for the fracking practice, before further contamination is done. [raysplace3@hotmail.com] 

Wall Street mega-banks are buying up the world’s water

By Jo-Shing Yang, Global Research, May 22, ‘14

[QUOTE/LINK] A disturbing trend in the water sector is

accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons” – the Wall Street banks and elitist multibillionaires – are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Familiar mega-banks and investing powerhouses […] are also buying thousands of acres of land with aquifers, lakes, water rights, water utilities, and shares in water engineering and technology companies all over the world.

“Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physicalcommodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, 22 dialogue

SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO. 4

agricultural commodities and precious metals.” says Willem Buitler, Citigroup economist. […] Specifically, a lucrative opportunity in water is in hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), as it generates massive demand for water and water services. Each oil well developed requires 3 to 5 million gallons of water, and 80% of this water cannot be reused because it’s three to 10 times saltier than seawater. Citigroup recommends waterrights owners sell water to fracking companies instead of to farmers: because water for fracking can be sold for as much as $3,000 per acre-foot instead of only $50 per acre/foot to farmers." [...] (from Sharon Lawrence) READ IN FULL at GlobalResearch.ca: http://shar.es/Vh8Z6 

www.dialogue2.ca

HISTORY, WAR AND PEACE….

A Hundred Years Ago

Duncan Graham, Vancouver BC (11 Mar 2014) web: www.planetfederation.org

A hundred years ago there was a general ‘stability’ in the world.

Europe had long since annexed the world as colonies or protectorates, though Latin America had already won independence.

America was keeping to itself.

The established nobility held social sway. Democracy had still to be extended to half the population that was women. The crowned heads of Europe – Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Czar Nicholas 11 of Imperial Russia, Emperor Francis Joseph 1 of the Austrian-Hungary empire, King George V of the United Kingdom, to name a few – were all related through Queen Victoria. The established order was the best of all possible worlds.

Some reforms started by Germany on pensions were a sign of social progress, moves that were not followed in Czarist Russia.

In practical terms, there were indeed massive changes.

The steam engine had revolutionized industry, communication and transportation. Radio had introduced an unbelievable governmental outreach.

That was a hundred years ago.

Then a shot rang out in a small town in southern Europe. A minor archduke lay dead. Like the classic house of cards, the entire system collapsed. In the next murderous four years, 20 million were killed or wounded. The face of Europe was re-arranged.

Crowned heads rolled. Gone was the Emperor of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire as well as his empire.

The Czar, the nobility, the entrenched interests of Russia’s elites taken over completely by a proletarian revolution. All in four short years. (My father was in the trenches near Ypres as a 19 year old.)

Despots and the entrenched never seem to see the sands on which their edifice rests. It was warned, of course, but other interests found it preferable to keep up the style to which they had become accustomed.

It was the established order of things after all.

In 1899, Czar Nicholas 11 of Russia called for a conference with this prophecy: “The intellectual and physical strength of nations, labour and capital alike, have been unproductively consumed in building terriwww.dialogue2.ca

ble engines of destruction. The system of armaments is transforming the armed peace into a crushing burden that weighs on all nations and, if prolonged, will lead inevitably to the very cataclysm which it is designed to avert.” [See Int’l Peace Conference, next page] The military-industrial complex of 1914, the Merchants of Death as they were called, made sure the War was prolonged. And sold arms to both sides very profitably On June 28th, 2014, it will be the centenary of that shot in Sarajevo. How have we progressed in a hundred years?? In 1963, the United Nations unanimously passed the McCloy-Zorin Accord for Complete and General Disarmament. But the industrial and military complex, the 21st century merchants of death, have won out. Total world military expenditures are US $1,740 Billion annually, reports the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The row of zeros is bemusing. But make it real. A 1mm pad of $100 notes is $1000. So a one metre slab of notes is $1,000,000 and a kilometer is a billion dollars. So world military expenditures are 1,740 kms of packed $100 notes. Yet (Pakistani education activist) Malala has to campaign for funds for third world kids.

The vision of a civilized planet has already been described. It is all in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Organizations like the World Federalist Movement have proclaimed the necessity of a world federal parliament. Without government, there is anarchy. The same five Permanent members with veto still control the UN Security Council as they have done since 1945; and UN Charter review (Art. 109) is by-passed.

WW1 produced the League of Nations. WW11 the United Nations. Next ?

– Duncan Graham From Duncan’s website: Global Citizens Association. www.planetfederation.org - January 2008, Vancouver BC [ duncangraham80@gmail.com ]

The integration of the planet, it has been said, was inevitable after the Del Cano - Magellan circum-navigation of the world in 1522. A hundred years ago, Marconi effected electronic closure of the globe with radio. The first flight around the world by USAAF was in 1924. It was sent off by U.S. President Cleveland with the prophesy that intercontinental travel would be by air in four hundred years. (In fact it took only 40 years for air to supersede sea). On 12th April 1961,  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Duncan Graham, from his website, Global Citizens Association, contd.

Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, circled the earth in space orbit in 90 minutes.

History is being telescoped.

In 1842 Tennyson wrote, in his prophetic poem, Locksley Hall: Yes, we dip into the future, far as human eye can see.

See the vision of the world and all the wonder that shall be.

In the parliament of all, the federation of the world.

the brotherhood and sisterhood of human kind, the Nation of Humanity. The world is intra-dependent. But there is no self-government for the Global Village, the planetary ecumene. There is a political power vacuum at the world level.

Fundamental crucial issues of peace, security, economic and social justice, human and wildlife rights and ecological protection are planetary in nature. Human sovereignty in a planetary society supersedes national jurisdictions.

The planet, it has been said, is a cryptocracy* camouflaging its innovators. We now have a planetary community,

* A form of government where the real leaders are hidden, or merely unknown.

Final Act of the International Peace Conference, 1899 The Hague, 29 July 1899

From www.ircc.org (the Int’l Committee of the Red Cross)

State parties (0) - State signatories (27)

The First Hague Peace Conference of 1899 was convened on the initiative of the Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, "with the object of seeking the most effective means of ensuring to all peoples the benefits of a real and lasting peace, and, above all, of limiting the progressive development of existing armaments" (Russian note of 30 December 1898/11 January 1899). The Conference, at which 26 governments were represented, assembled on 18 May 1899 and adjourned on 29 July 1899. It failed to reach agreement on the pri-

mary object for which it was called, namely the limitation or reduction of armaments, but adopted the three Conventions and the other acts mentioned in the Final Protocol. Provision was made for the convening of a second conference. This conference lasted from 15 June until 18 October 1907. The Final Acts constitute authoritative statements of the results achieved.

They were signed by the delegates but not ratified by the participating states. They have no binding force.

[LINK: www.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/145?OpenDocument ] Read the Final Act of the International Peace Conference. The Hague, 29 July 1899: Final Act: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/IPCfinal-act 

Calling Things By Their Proper Names in the Ukraine From The Vineyard of The Saker

[May 23, 2014] Life often seems like one long never ending Asch conformity experiment: even when there is overwhelming evidence that something is "A", the media, and those zombified by it, confidently state "non-A". That this kind of doublethink is also applied to the conflict in the Ukraine should surprise nobody, but it is still important to "call a stone and stone" and to give a clear and unambiguous characterization of what has happened so far and what is about to happen this Sunday. So today I want to re-state the obvious using the most direct and unambiguous language possible. My hope is to contribute to wake up at least one comatose person out there by calling things by their proper names.

So far we have this: a thoroughly corrupt but democratically elected President (Yanukovich) was overthrown in an armed coup by (lavishly, 5 billion dollars-) paid agents of a foreign power. The new regime is composed exclusively either of corrupt oligarchs (like Iatseniuk) or neo-Nazis (like Parubii).

Regardless, this regime has received the full and un24 dialogue

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conditional support of the US/EU and all those clientstates worldwide which depend on them.

The junta in power has unleashed a sustained campaign of terror against all those who dare to oppose it, including civilians (Odessa and Mariupol massacres) and their own armed forces (massacres near Volnovakha yesterday and near Lisichansk today, May 23 ‘14). Since the regular police is now disbanded and since the regular armed forces are clearly unwilling to execute the criminal orders of this illegal junta, the sole power basis of this unelected regime are death squads like the "Donbass special battalion".

Furthermore, while the US/EU have accused Russia of being behind all the troubles, not a single Russian spy, agent or saboteur has been produced in support of that thesis. In fact, not only has Russia not intervened in the Donbass, Putin has officially asked the people there to delay their referendum, he has withdrawn Russian forces from the border and he has even ordered Russian forces to move out of their regular bases if they were anywhere near the border.  www.dialogue2.ca

Calling Things By Their Proper Names in the Ukraine, contd.

At every single step of this crisis, Russia has offered to negotiate with the US, the EU and even the junta. All refused except for the short lived February 21 agreement which the foreign agents broke the next day only to be immediately recognized by the US and EU as a legitimate government.

Not a single person was killed or seriously wounded during the Russian military operation in the Crimea. In contrast, the junta has now used machine guns, mortars, artillery, combat helicopters and combat aircraft against entire cities of the Donbass.

While the Russian social media is full of expressions of sympathy and compassion for those killed in the Ukraine, the Ukrainian social media is awash with hateful racist slurs about what they call the "colorads" (a kind of insect with the same colors as those on the Saint George ribbon). Other anti-Russian slurs used are "Moskal" and "Titushki". Speaking of which, Iulia Timoshenko intercepted venting her hatred at the Russians in a telephone conversations in which she said that "these accursed Moskals should be executed with nuclear weapons".

And now, in the middle of what can only be called a civil war, this regime of racist, corrupt and bloodthirsty freaks will organize "Presidential elections" after two of the main opposition parties (Regions and Communists) had their offices firebombed, their representatives attacked, their deputies expelled from the rump Parliament and their supporters burned alive, shot, stabbed, clubbed to death, kidnap and tortured.

And, no doubt, the AngloZionists will declare these elections free and fair.

The above is not tragic or otherwise "disturbing". It is obscene beyond words!

So let's state is clearly: the "West" is supporting a Nazi farce which will only result in more blood and lost lives.

The second thing which needs to be stated with equal clarity is this: whatever regime is declared elected on Sunday (May 25th, or in three weeks in case of a second round) it will have zero legitimacy and it will not be viable.

The third thing which everybody is desperately trying to pretend not to see is this: the Ukraine as a unitary country is gone and will never come back. The West has been working on this ugly experiment since the late 16th century and its objectives have not changed: www.dialogue.ca

to create an anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox "Ukraine" controlled by the Vatican and the Western plutocracy.

So while the US has invested 5 billion dollars into "democratizing" the Ukraine, the West has spent much more during FOUR CENTURIES to try to cripple Russia and subjugate its people. This is why the "West" is so adamant and willing to risk it all to prevent this 400 year old project from coming tumbling down.

And yet it is amazing that anybody sane could have seriously believed that this obscene alliance of exCommunists (Farion), Jewish oligarchs (Kolomoiskii), neo-Nazis (Iarosh), Latin Uniats (Tiagnibok) and racist thugs (Parubii) would ever succeed in building something. No, all that people like these can do is hate, destroy, kill, lie, torture and terrorize. There is no "creative capacity" in folks like Parubii, Liashko, Turchinov or Tiagnibok. There is only the characteristic Satanic hatred for light, for peace, for truth, for freedom and for love. And, frankly, I believe that the same is true for those who lovingly nurtured them for years and now unconditionally support them: Obama, McCain, Nuland of course, but also Hollade, Merkel, Hague, Ashton and the rest of the Eurobureaucrats.

So there. I did it. I said it in plain language, (I bolded the parts I wanted to stress and even added some red color to what I consider the most important). Childish? Maybe. Am I venting? Yes, of course! What is wrong about venting when somebody sees an abomination being committed by a few evil men while the rest of mankind stands by in total, deafening, silence?

Of course, this post is not very academic or objective.

So what!? François Rabelais once wrote "Science sans conscience n'est que ruine de l'âme" ("science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul"). When faced with such blatant evil supported by such blatant lies it is sometimes appropriate to set science aside for a while and let one's conscience speak out.

I want to conclude this post with these beautiful words of Yehuda Bower who encapsulate the entire philosophy of this blog: Thou shalt not be a victim.

Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.

And above all, Thou shalt not be a bystander This is also my intention. ~ The Saker [A self-described “ 'legal alien' currently living in the Imperial Homeland” – with mailing addresses in Florida and Switzerland; email: vineyardsaker@gmail.com ]  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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“Ideas Whose Time Has Come”

Intriguing Ideas from David Foster…

david.foster2@powergate.ca

And Gaia watched it all unfold…

Roger Turtle was appointed Minister of Immigration. I thought it was a mis-spelling of ‘Tuttle’, but no, it really is ‘Turtle’… ‘Big Turtle’ in fact. He is one eighth Caucasian and the rest native North American. A widely travelled man and something of a philosopher. He always carries a sort of ‘Doctors’ Bag’ around with him… and draws strange things out at strange times.

I won’t go in to how he became a serious contender for High Office in the Canadian Federal Government, but he did. He found an office in Ottawa where he set up headquarters so everything could be in a circle, the room, the desks, the chairs. In the centre of it all, was a small portable fireplace surrounded by a small shallow basin of water, and around that, cushions that didn’t match each other. Visitors on first coming in were expected to sit cross legged a while, remain silent, and simply take in the surroundings. Maybe three minutes was enough. Early of a morning he would sit at various compass points around the circle with his Doctor’s Bag open, and pull out various things to simply fondle, feel the texture of.

Next door was another circular office in which all the

hi-tech stuff was located, and three high tech assistants sitting at normal desks and in normal chairs, and ready to answer normal telephones and FAXes. Together they were supposed to come up with a new Immigration Policy, and with that a National Policy on Housing. Both rooms were painted a pale blue.

(Only Métis visitors recognized the set-up as the linked circles of the Métis Flag. Although others saw symbolism about ‘water’ in it all).

There was a portrait of the Queen on the wall, and a large map of Canada with a few coloured pins stuck in it. The map had a transparent overlay that showed the density of populations in various regions. Another showed an e-curve of geometric expansion rising toward the ceiling and reference numbers to some other files.

This morning, Roger Big Turtle performed his morning devotions and then thought about his job… what to do about Immigration…? Maybe even close it down… He put his hand in the water and gave it a swirl, and then he smelled it. It was the universal solvent. That and the contents of the Medicine Bag guided him on his way in his deliberations…

What would you advise Roger to do?

David Foster, Port Perry ON



Darwin’s Lost Theory – Bridge to a Better World, by David Loye From The Prologue, (from pp.5-8)

[QUOTE, LINK] “It may seem inconceivable, beyond belief. But what I found is the Darwin whose other great contribution was in providing the scientific grounding for the “love thy neighbor” ethos of Jesus.

Indeed, he does this, as a whole, for progressive religion and progressive philosophy. In other words, in the “lost Darwin” one finds a carefully reasoned, empirically grounded scientific expression of the supremacy of love and moral sensitivity, with even a good word for what we know today as progressive religion! […]

We follow him as he writes of what, in page after page, is to be published in all the major languages of this earth, only to disappear into the bog holes of PseudoDarwinian Mind as surely as if it had been written in invisible ink.

Leaving the mindset in which we’ve been trapped for a century, as if in a helicopter we’ll zoom down from

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the clouds south of London toward the village of Downe. And then on down into Darwin’s study in Down House, as he writes of who we really are.

Of how, rather than as we’ve been brain-washed over many centuries to believe, we are basically good— that is, of how, far more often than we are aware of, we are driven by moral sensitivity.

Of how, though selfish, we are also driven by love to transcend selfishness.

Of how, though of necessity fiercely motivated to survive and prevail, we are also driven by the transcendent need to respect and care for the needs of others.

We are there as he writes of how, though in part, or even throughout much of our lives, we may be the captives, victims and even slaves of forces larger than ourselves, above all we are driven by a brain and a mind with the hunger and the capability for a  www.dialogue2.ca

Darwin’s Lost Theory – Bridge to a Better World, by David Loye, contd.

choice of destiny in a world in which choice of destiny is an option.

We are there as he writes of where we are going.

Not of how we are driven blindly, witlessly, through a life with no predictability—which has convinced far too many of us that we are but sheep in need of the wolf as leader. Instead, we are there as he writes of how we are driven by a brain that demands of life a sense of meaning and purpose, and by the vision of a better future.

We are there as in no uncertain terms he writes down for all with open minds and eyes to see, “Important as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of our nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are advanced either directly or indirectly

much more through the effects of habit, by our reasoning powers, by instruction, by religion, etc., than through natural selection.”

As he writes, “But the more important elements for us are love, and the distinct emotion of sympathy.”

And of how, “The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events that our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. The understanding revolts at such a conclusion.” […]

Quoted from the book by David Loye, “Darwin’s Lost Theory: Bridge to a Better World” (2007) ISBN: 978-0-9789827-6-8 For all David Loye’s writings, visit: www.davidloye.com/ LINK re book: www.davidloye.com/DLTpromo.html [SEE ALSO: BACK COVER OF THIS ISSUE.]

Exposing the corrupt U.S. 'deep state'

The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America – Book by Peter Dale Scott QUOTED FROM THE PRINTED FLY LEAF:

"Peter Dale Scott exposes a shadow world of oil, terrorism, drug trade, and arms deals, of covert financing and parallel security structures – from the Cold War to today. He shows how such parallel forces of the United States have been able to dominate the agenda of the George W. Bush administration, and that statements and actions made by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld before, during, and after September II, 2001, present evidence for an American 'deep state' and for the so-called Continuity of Government in parallel to the regular 'public state' ruled by law. Scott's brilliant work not only reveals the overwhelming importance of these parallel forces but also presents elements of a strategy for restraining their influence to win back the 'public state,' the American democracy. " – Ola Tunander, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo

"The Road to 9/11 is vintage Peter Dale Scott. Scott does not undertake conventional political analysis; instead, he engages in a kind of poetics, crafting the dark poetry of the deep state, of parapolitics, and of shadow government. As with his earlier work Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Scott has no theory of responsibility and does not name the guilty. Rather, he maps out an alien terrain, surveying the topography of a political shadow land, in which covert political deviancy emerges as the norm. After reading Scott, we can no longer continue with our consensus-driven www.dialogue2.ca

belief that our so-called liberal order renders impossible the triumph of the politically irrational." – Eric Wilson, Senior Lecturer of Public International Law, Monash University, and co-editor of Government of the Shadows

"A powerful study of the historic origins of the terrorist strikes of September II, this book offers an indispensable guide to the gluttonous cast of characters who, since Watergate and the fall of Nixon, fashioned an ever-more-reckless American empire. By exposing the corrupt U.S. 'deep state' – transfer of public authority to America's wealthy and to the nation's unaccountable secret intelligence agencies – Peter Dale Scott's The Road to 9/11 illuminates the path toward a more democratic and inclusive republic." – David MacGregor, King's University College at the University of Western Ontario

"The Road to 9/11 provides an illuminating and disturbing history of the American government since World War II. Scott's account suggests that the 9/11 attacks were a culmination of long-term trends that threaten the very existence of American democracy, and also that there has been a massive cover-up of 9/11 itself. This book, which combines extensive research, perceptive analysis, and a fascinating narrative, will surely be considered Scott's magnum opus."

– David Ray Griffin, author of Debunking 9/11Debunking The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America

By Peter Dale Scott, 2007, University of California Press ISBN 978-0-520-25871-6 [See also back cover of this issue] VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 27

“Resonance”

‘Something There Is’ That Doesn’t Love a Teacher

by Susan McCaslin

Some serious teacher bashing is going on in British Columbia right now. Shelly Fralic, a journalist for the Vancouver Sun, recently exploited her personal issue of teachers parking their vehicles on a public street in front of her house as a means of arousing hatred against teachers for their “sense of entitlement.” Teachers, she suggested, are lazy buggers who work from 8 till 3 and then get the summers off. Her piece was perfectly timed to arouse animosity, coming out just after the B.C. Liberal government had threatened that if teachers proceeded with their intended job action, the government would retaliate by cutting, not increasing, their pay.

First, I must come clean as a retired educator who taught at a local college in B.C. for 23 years, and before that as instructor, sessional lecturer, and teaching assistant. I began teaching in 1969 but knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was in grade 8. Teaching has been for me not just a job, but a vocation (a true calling) and a passion. So I am not simply a bystander, but still believe I can be objective based on my long experience within the teaching profession.

My sense is that most educators are idealistic folks who received encouragement from a teacher at some time in their lives and wish to encourage and support youth in return, or, for some other reason, care about children and young people and wish to nurture and support them in their formative years. Though there are a few wastrels in any system (legal, government, business), the majority of teachers of my acquaintance are rather diligent and conscientious people. Most of them entered the profession, not so much for its respectability or potential financial remuneration, as for the opportunity to help young people evolve into mature, civic-minded, fully human, integrated individuals. After all, one can go into law, medicine, accounting, business, and have prospects of a much higher income and more respectability than in teaching.

Unfortunately, here in B.C., and in many other places in the world, public education is underfunded and undervalued. In B.C., teachers and local government 28 dialogue

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are currently heading into a collision of apparent irreconcilables.

Clearly, our public education system is in crisis. Due to burgeoning class sizes, an increasing numbers of “special needs” students, the elimination of teachers’ aides, and lack of classroom resources, teachers are stressed to the maximum. Some of them are leaving the profession because they can’t cope with the pressure. Marking and preparation, extracurricular activities, classroom management issues, and administrative responsibilities conjoin to take a toll.

The B.C. Liberal government’s position is that the need to balance the budget precludes the provision of classroom resources, smaller student to teacher ratios, and a raise in pay for teachers. Repeatedly, when teachers have demanded better working conditions, the government has legislated them back to work. Refusing to negotiate, the government continues to generously fund corporate interests. When public education deteriorates, Premier Christy Clark puts her child in a private school. One has to wonder if the B.C. government wishes to allow the public education system to become dysfunctional in order to privatize education completely.

The question that recurs is “why?” Why such an adamant stance against teachers, students, parents, and anyone who desires a decent public education system for our children? Why such obvious disdain of teachers? One would think such disrespect might be grounded in negative experiences with teachers in high school. Or perhaps the public has ingested the stereotypic depictions of teachers in the media.

And there is another reason for a lack of sympathy for teachers: a lingering, media-fed, irrational fear and hatred of unions. Yet without some kind of collective bargaining clout, how can teachers have any power at all to put forward not only their needs, but those of their students?

To my mind, the deepest reason for animosity against teachers is fear: the government’s fear of citizens who possess critical thinking skills. Historically, when right wing dictatorial governments rise to power, the first to be targeted are poets, writers, activists, and educators. This is because, traditionally, educators  www.dialogue.ca

Susan McCaslin, ‘Something There Is’ That Doesn’t Love a Teacher, contd.

and artists include those who have the long view, those who are not motivated simply by pragmatism and greed. Educators in the arts, sciences, and social sciences have a legacy of examining the human condition in a larger context, asking about its meaning and purpose beyond that of immediate gain.

“Something there is” (said Robert Frost in his poem “Mending Wall”) that doesn’t want the masses asking questions. “Something there is” that wants to turn out cookie-cutter consumers who will support the corporate status quo.

In my case, and that of many others, teachers helped us think and feel for ourselves. My grade 12 civics teacher helped me realize I could someday make the world a better place when he encouraged me to write on the United Nations and efforts toward world peace.

A history professor showed me history wasn’t just about memorizing facts, but about asking what we can learn from the past. An English teacher in grade 7 taught me not just to memorize a poem, but to participate in the poetic mode of being, to be creative.

Now that I’m retired, this capacity to enter the creative process enriches my life as a writer. Without the encouragement and support of memorable mentors and educators while in school, I might be in a materialist’s void. Because of one particular teacher who told me I was a writer when I was 12, I am a full-time poet and writer. Because of a professor in grad school who introduced me to the power of myth in contemporary poetry, I am recreating myself through language and offering my gift to others. I am not just a consumer, a bored retiree, but fulfilled. Teachers proffered me the opportunity to truly be and to live more holistically.

Isn’t this what we want for ourselves and our children, as well as to earn a living and meet the necessities of daily life? Critical thinkers aren’t just passive victims of social patterns and corporate powers, but movers, shakers, activists – exactly what some governments most fear.

Susan McCaslin, Langley BC This posting originally appeared on Wood Lake Publishing’s blog: http://essential-spirituality.com/

“Playful Resonance”

The Gospel According to Dog Susan McCaslin

Prologue: In the beginning was the HOWL and the HOWL was with DOG

Blessed are the dogs for they shall inherit their turf.

And DOG was made flesh with bone and dwelt among us as a friend.

Judge not the human who loves his dog but is unable to love all humans for I say unto you, what human has served in such humility as her dog?

Do unto your dog as you would have your dog do unto you.

And this is the gospel according to DOG which he left for us who have noses

If dogs eye each other to sniff each other’s rumps, they shall be forgiven, for it is instinct.

though they not be as keen as DOG's.

Yet DOG looks kindly upon the people.

It has been said, discourage your dog from his obsession with catching the ball,

THE WISDOM SAYINGS OF DOG

but I say unto you, let your dog exhaust himself in his obsession.

and the HOWL was DOG The same was in the beginning with DOG

(These fragments were discovered by a retriever in a cave at the site of Lab Ham-barki, an area in the middle-east likely used as a refuge by 2nd century canines during the doggy holocaust of those days. The retriever stumbled upon them accidentally while excavating for bones. Scholars believe these to have been the original core sayings of DOG, circulated in barks, and probably the basis of the more familiar Dogspells.) www.dialogue2.ca

Woe unto you abusers of the choke chain, for it is an abomination to Dog-spirit.

It would be better to lock yourself in a kennel than to abuse one of these pups for of such is the kingdom of DOG. VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014



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Susan McCaslin, The Gospel According to Dog, contd.

I am my human's keeper, but if the keeper cannot be merciful, of what use is he who calls himself Master?

There is no master over dog and human but Mutual Regard. I in dog and dog in me.

Do not consider scooping your dog's poop an abhorrent chore, rather, accept the grittiness of your dog for he too is an earth being.

A dog is the soupbone of the world.

Yet if a dog loses his peculiar odour how shall he attract another dog?

Therefore let your dog linger by his favorite bush or hydrant.

For every hair on his hide is numbered.

Consider the dogs with sweaters high tech rain gear, and poodle perms: yet the Dogstar in all its splendour is not arrayed as one stray.

He who rebuffs his dog's affection shall be rebuffed in his direst hour.

What did out come out to see?

A hound in sackcloth and sandals?

Nay, I tell you, a keen-nose is among you, but you have not known me.

My tribe hunted and ran beside yours till the humans overran the earth.

But the stiff-necked, hind-legged ones pressed the limits of our loyalty.

Still, it’s our nature to forgive, for DOG is all Love and Forgiveness.

Think not that I come to bring incisors between human and dog.

It has been written, "A bite for a swat and a snarl for yanks," but I say unto you, give pats for snarls, and your dog will hold you dear.

Don’t dress your dog in silly costumes, for a dog does not wish to be tricked out like a human.

Practice the correct scratching of the left ear and great will be your reward in DOGDOM. For what kindness you do secretly, your dog will express publicly.

Know your dog's heart, for it is larger than yours, and what you give your dog will be restored in licks a thousand fold.

Let no human think himself better than dog and no dog despise himself for his stature for the union of human and dog is in the nature of things.

These sayings I leave with you that your heart may rejoice with your dog’s and that the taming between you become a wildness.

I go away to dig up a bed for you without chain link fences or leashes that where I romp you may romp also.

These are the Sayings of Dog from which no jot or kibble shall be removed till all enter DOGTIME, the eternal play field.

Blessed are those who gobble these words like treats and howl them to the moon with their dogs forever and forever, till the end of all dog pounds AHHHWOOOOO! - Susan McCaslin



Man drives truck across country, rescuing dogs Good News Network - May 21, 2014

Twice a month Greg Mahle leaves his home in Zanesville, Ohio to drive a semi-trailer through Texas and other southern states picking up dogs set to be euthanized. He sleeps on a mattress among the dozens of dogs until he reaches states like Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Vermont, where loving families are waiting to adopt them. His Rescue Road Trips 30 dialogue

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rely on plenty of volunteers who help feed and play with the dogs along the way. In the last decade Mahle has saved an average of 2000 dogs each year. See some of the happy new owners on the Rescue Trips’ Facebook Page. “I’m not able to change the whole world,” he told the Zanesville Times Recorder. “But for a few dogs, I can change their whole world.”

LINK: http://tinyurl.com/GNNmahle 

www.dialogue.ca

“My Dog Pax” [A story from “Magical Moon Lake”] [From Karl’s 2005 book “Magical Moon Lake”*]

Karl Backhaus, Holland Centre ON

I remember when I was a little boy I was always attracted by dogs. It did not matter if a dog was barking or on a chain, I just wanted to pet it. The joy of spending a few moments with dogs overruled any common fear. Deep down I knew that dogs are afraid of strangers and expressed their fear through barking. I also knew that dogs are eager to make friends with people who love them.

A cautious but loving approach without any fear, respecting a dog’s space and allowing the dog to come to me, turned almost any vicious-looking dog into a playful and grateful pet and friend in a short time.

Having a dog as a friend was always rewarding and the same is true for me today.

But growing up in a small apartment in the port city of Hamburg in Germany I could not have a dog. So my dog encounters were always short-lived. When we moved to the Land of Moon Lake it was the first time that a dog became part of my life.

“PAX”

After we watched the inter-action of the audience with the German Shepherd dog of the TV show, “The Littlest Hobo,” while performing at a dog show at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, we asked the trainer for a future puppy.

Ten months later, an eight-week-old puppy arrived, in a small cage by plane from Seattle, at the Toronto freight terminal. This little dog was adorable and we named him Pax, the Latin word for peace. For me Pax was special, but all pets are special once we get to know them. Pax grew quickly, helping us to build our new home at Moon Lake.

When we went to other places I did not want to keep Pax on a leash because my perception of a leash was that I would also be on a leash. Although Pax did not mind a leash, the few times he actually was on one I could count on my fingers. Not keeping Pax on a leash took some training on home www.dialogue2.ca

ground and lots of patience.

At first Pax would run away. Calling him seemed useless because he was fast and out of sight in no time.

So in the beginning when he ran away I reversed our roles. I would either run in the opposite direction or, as soon as he was out of sight, quickly try to hide, sometimes high up in a tree.

After many of these experiences, Pax never went too far away and he would always look for me, even in crowded city places. At first when I left home in my car he ran after the car to exhaustion. After driving for about half a mile, when he was out of sight behind a knoll in the road, I stopped and waited. He soon arrived and I invited him into the car. While immediately returning to the house, I told him to stay home next time. It took about twenty repetitions of this ‘game’ until Pax got the message, not that he didn’t get the message before, but he was so attached to me that he couldn’t understand why I would leave him.

To give you an idea why I was so adamant to teach Pax to stay home, I will tell you about one experience we had. After we had had only a few practices with Pax running after the car and me taking him back, we were invited to a big party at friends who had a cottage in the forest, about one mile away. We left Pax in the large front porch that had lots of single-glass windows, so he could look out. Our surprise came less than an hour later, when Pax showed up at the party looking for us. We could not figure out how he knew where we were and how he had gotten out through the shut door.

It turned out that he had jumped right through the glass window without hurting himself. When finally Pax learned to stay home, he had his own small entrance into the house and now he could come and go at will. He never followed the car again and never ventured more than 100 yards away from the house by himself. Pax always knew when we were going to leave and his response, instead of running after the car, was to head for my bed. Without or without the addition of a protective bedcover, we knew where we would find him when we returned, so we accepted his deal and routinely covered up my bed.

Since he was a German Shepherd, it seemed  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Karl Backhaus, My Dog Pax, contd.

appropriate for us to talk to him in German as well as English. By not giving him hand signals or visual clues to what we said, we taught Pax to pay attention to our words. After a number of years, we were amazed how much he understood. Without a doubt he was well versed in English and German.

Pax became especially curious when we talked in a very low voice about something he was not supposed to hear. Often we had the impression that he could read our minds, responding, not only to words, but also to thoughts we had not yet expressed as language.

His father, the “Littlest Hobo,” understood about 5000 words in several languages. His trainer, Chuck Eisenmann, whom we had first met at a dog show, had given a convincing demonstration of the Hobo’s understanding of language. Chuck’s book, “stop! sit! and think” (1968) – the step-by-step account of an intellectual breakthrough between man and dog, and a revolutionary method of teaching a dog how to think, reason and behave – was very helpful for me in bringing up Pax as an intelligent being.

I came to know Pax very well. It became apparent to me by observing subtleties in his behaviour that Pax actually could see fear in a person who was as far away as 200 yards. Through Pax, my understanding of animals and their inherent ability to communicate

telepathically grew tremendously. For many years, we traveled with Pax in our Volkswagen camper as far as Mexico. Often people were astonished how friendly Pax was when they marvelled at his beautiful coat. In crowded places like the caves near Monterrey, or at Niagara Falls, strangers would ask me if they could take a picture with Pax, and he obliged by posing with them.

He especially liked women, while some men were afraid of him, perhaps due to his sheer size. At the end of his life he could not walk any longer. Pax struggled for a long time before he finally left us one morning in June, in 1985 when he died in the entrance hall where he had his bed. It was not easy for me to take care of him, but I could not ‘put him to sleep’ just because he was old.

Pax taught me a lot about the world of dogs. This understanding was the beginning of my communicating with other animals. In spirit, Pax is never too far away from me when you listen to my stories. In a true sense, Pax was the first visitor to Moon Lake because he was here when it was built. *** * This story is from in Chapter 7 of Karl’s book, “Magical Moon Lake” (2006) ISBN 0-9739979-0-7.

Reprinted with the author’s permission.

For lots of beautiful photos of Magical Moon Lake, visit the website: www.prosperityamma.com/magical-moon-lake.html

Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good 2014 book by Heather Menzies - A Memoire & Manifesto

“Heather Menzies’ new book is an evocative journey of personal and political transformation and an inspiring call to action.

“In this groundbreaking memoir, author Heather Menzies blends an intimate account of her ancestors’ lives on the commons, with an exploration of key contemporary practices that can help us reconnect with each other and with the Earth. A detailed description of the self-organizing, self-governing and self-informing principles of this nearlyforgotten way of life - including its spiritual practices and traditions – is linked to a number of current popular initiatives around food security, climate change, community renewal and Aboriginal self-determination, and a unified vision for reclaiming the commons.”

“Heather Menzies is an award-winning writer and 32 dialogue

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scholar, the author of nine books, including Whose Brave New World? and No Time.”

[Quoted from the book’s back cover] See cover image on P. 60. ISBN: 978-0-86571-758-9, published by New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC. 

Enough food is produced to feed everyone!

MERCOLA.COM, May 31, 2014 “A report* on global food waste suggests that up to half of the food produced in the world today is wasted, never reaching a human mouth. In spite of the fact that there is more than enough food produced globally – to feed every single man, woman, and child – 2.3 million children still die of hunger every year.” […] [*The report, "Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not," published in 2013 by the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), found that more than two billion tons of food is wasted annually.] Read full article at Mercola.com LINK: http://tinyurl.com/MER32597 

www.dialogue.ca

“Your Health Matters”

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., Strongsville OH

It is helpful to understand how we arrived at the way we practice modern medicine.

The Middle Ages were a disaster as far as medicine was concerned. In the 16th century, there were people called “Pisse prophets.” They examined urine by dipping a finger in a sample and tasting it.

They were familiar with a sweet urine, hence the term “diabetes mellitus” (Latin for sweet) and insipid urine for what we now know as “diabetes insipidus”, offering a hint of things to come.

The various treatments used through history, however barbaric they may seem, must have helped some people or they would have been discarded very quickly.

Early Egyptians bored holes in the patient’s skull “to allow the evil spirit to escape”. Perhaps the occasional incidence of headache due to a brain tumor might have been relieved. Perhaps bloodletting helped some people with high blood pressure.

The first indication of scientific fact came with the observations of Semmelweiss, a 19th century physician.

He was the first person to make doctors wash their hands before delivering an infant, although microorganisms had still not been discovered. He had come to the conclusion that “something on the hands of the doctors” was responsible for the disease that followed their attention. Because this was in conflict with contemporary concepts, he was scorned and laughed at.

Louis Pasteur later found that organisms that could only be seen with the microscope caused disease and death. This became the paradigm of modern scientific medicine. It led to ways and means of killing the “ enemy” – bacteria and later, viruses, parasites and cancer cells.

This was also a disastrous time when efforts were made to kill the “enemy” without killing the patient, until the discovery of penicillin that opened the antibiotic era. This, as we all know, has led to its own problems with bacterial resistance and the dangers associated with a hospital infection. Some antibiotics were found to be so toxic that they were diverted to the treatment of cancer, a comment on modern chemotherapy. www.dialogue.ca

It is, however, known by only a few that Louis Pasteur said on his deathbed, “I was wrong, it is body defenses that matter”.

My view is that, with this statement, Louis Pasteur opened the second potential paradigm in medicine: that doctors must teach the patient to look after his/her body in order to maintain health and assist the natural process of healing when health breaks down. Preventive medicine is the ticket to healthier aging. As I have said many times in these pages, we are back to the teaching of Hippocrates when he said “let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.”

Of course, I fully recognize that this is an impossible prescription in our world today, no matter how much it is repeated. It can only be adopted by personal choice. The drug and food industries are a major part of the economy and some of us will remember that Clinton based his campaign on the slogan “it’s the economy, stupid.”

Changes can only come from the public as they gradually begin to understand the health benefits and the exquisite palatability of natural foods. It is extremely doubtful that any such change will come from the medical profession since medicine has become “big business”. There is also a stubborn hedonism in all of us, defended by the statement “I can’t give that up, it is one of the few pleasures that I have.”

Taking the best of modern mainstream medicine – and adding the best of what has become known as Alternative Medicine – might then be called “Integrative.”

This is a term that has become more popular, since we desire unity in our scientific medical approach.

We all recognize that modern medicine has come a long way in the acute aspects of disease and the skill of surgery but does a poor job in the recognition and treatment of chronic illnesses. Over the past 40 or 50 years, a few doctors have come to realize that there is a huge potential in the teachings of Hippocrates.

Dr. Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic has shown that cardiovascular disease can be prevented and even reversed by using a plant-based diet. It is not the least surprising that chronic diseases are increasingly in evidence, occurring earlier in life and enriching the medical profession unnecessarily. Dietary mayhem  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., Integrative Medicine, contd.

is a major cause. The practice of what has come to be known as Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) is extraordinarily rewarding and is gradually becoming a little more recognized. “Integrative Medicine” seems to be a logical term.

Current laboratory approach, accepted by both doctor and patient, works under the impression that laboratory analysis is diagnostic. The style of teaching in American medical schools is derived from the Flexner report of 1910; and the German method of diagnosis was adopted. Symptoms, described by the patient and the observations of the physician derived from the physical examination, together create a constellation of facts which hints at a diagnosis. The laboratory analysis, based on scientific knowledge, is used “to prove or disprove it.”

This is only partly true, because many of the results show disturbance in the system but do not tell us why.

For example, we have a number of markers that tell us there is inflammation somewhere in the body. These markers may be in increased concentration with symptoms that are so trivial or so common that they are accepted as normal, often ignored by the patient and often treated as “psychosomatic” by the doctor.

On the other hand, if many joints are swollen and painful, the diagnosis is obviously arthritis. While this organic disease is still treated strictly as a disease of the body, recent research has shown that inflammation is initiated by the brain through nerve impulses sent to

the body and is the secret of the underlying cause.

Osler, the most famous physician of the 19th century, was Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins medical school. He so rejected the Flexner report that he immigrated to England and in 1905 was appointed to the Regius Chair of Medicine in Oxford.

Later, as Sir William Osler, his faith in clinical medicine became the foundation of medical school teaching in England. The bedside teaching that we received, using these principles, taught us to listen to the patient and that symptoms were merely a record of perceptions in his/her brain. Like a language in its own right, those perceptions require interpretation.

It is hardly surprising therefore that the medical history delivered by the patient, often with facts mentioned as an afterthought at the last moment, usually provides the major clues. Just as the patient gives us the clues, so do the laboratory test results; and their underlying meaning must be interpreted in context with those provided by the patient. The various imaging techniques of modern technology are, of course, often invaluable but can sometimes mislead the issues by “finding something questionable” that becomes an added stress to an already worried patient. ~ Derrick Lonsdale, M.D. Everything is connected to everything else.

Derrick Lonsdale is a retired Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and a Certified Nutrition Specialist. www.prevmed.com / Blog: http://o2thesparkoflife.blogspot.com/ 

Alzheimer’s Disease—Yes, It’s Preventable! ~ through proper diet…

Dr. Mercola, May 22, 2014 [QUOTE & LINK] Last year, and again this spring, I interviewed Dr. David Perlmutter, author of the New York Times' bestseller Grain Brain. In my view, Dr. Perlmutter is probably the leading integrative medicine neurologist in the US, and his advice is clear: Alzheimer's is preventable through proper diet. After spending years treating people's neurological symptoms, he grew increasingly frustrated with his profession's lack of ability to get to the root cause.

This frustration eventually led him to investigate the role of nutrition, and he became convinced that brain dysfunction is rooted in our modern-day high-grain diet. According to Dr. Perlmutter: "[Alzheimer's] is a preventable disease.

It surprises me at my core that no one's talking about the fact that so many of these devastating neurological problems are, in fact, modifiable based upon lifestyle choices…

What we've crystallized it down to now, in essence, is that diets that are high in sugar and carbohydrates, and similarly 34 dialogue

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diets that are low in fat, are devastating to the brain. When you have a diet that has carbohydrates in it, you are paving the way for Alzheimer's disease. I want to be super clear about that. Dietary carbohydrates lead to Alzheimer's disease. It's a pretty profound statement, but it's empowering nonetheless when we realize that we control our diet. We control our choices, whether to favor fat or carbohydrates."

Dr. Perlmutter’s book, Grain Brain, reveals how and why sugars and carbohydrates destroy your brain, and how to eat for neurological health. He notes Mayo Clinic research that reveals diets rich in carbohydrates are associated with an 89 percent increased risk for dementia while high-fat diets are associated with a 44 percent reduced risk. This combination of very little sugar and carbs, along with higher amounts of healthful fats is KEY for addressing, not only Alzheimer's, but diabetes and heart disease as well.

Read more at Mercola.com: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/ MER94868



www.dialogue2.ca

Breast Feeding sounds all warm & fuzzy, but has it any real value in modern times?

by Colin Knauf, Nanaimo BC Infant formula has come a long way from its debut in 1866 when pharmacist Henri Nestlé saw an opportunity and seized it. Linen mills of the nascent industrial revolution were looking to pare labour cost. Work at home mothers were ripe for the job. Disenfranchised with their position in society as mere chattels, many took the leap from home to outside work. Many babies lost their mothers to the Industrial Revolution for poor wages and the illusion of gender equality. Nestlé started making and supplying his new ‘formula’ of SUGAR, FLOUR AND MILK for these sadly abandoned babies?

Slick marketing and unethical business practices2 have very effectively placed infant formula as an ALTERNATIVE to mother's milk. The Pharmaceutical cohort has parlayed SUGAR and a handful of ingredients into a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY capitalizing on our fast paced life, while using our babies as lab rats. Formula profits have burgeoned globally while health has declined and the cost of health care has skyrocketed.

Naturally we all enjoy choice, however so much goes unsaid. Offering women formula as a choice is illusionary. It is not a substitute for mothers’ milk. It is a Trojan Horse – NOW full of GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS [GMO]. Formula robs infants of the holistic, essential experience and physicality of breast feeding. While short changing babies of immediate and long term health benefits of mother’s miracle milk which we now have found, contains STEM CELLS! Cells which help repair cellular damage during development. This is HUGE! The costs from formula use are much greater than just overpriced formula. The ‘externals’ are many and rarely mentioned. They include but are not limited to remediation and restoration of – malformed jaws, dental occlusion, hearing impairment, learning issues, severe colic and gastrointestinal pain, etc.

To put it very bluntly – Making the right choice is a NO BRAINER, if we seek to learn the truth!

Scientific evidence tells us mothers' milk is the perfect elixir of life, dynamically reformulating optimal ingredients on demand. It meets changing nutritional demands of a fast developing brain and body while adjusting for vagaries of climate – more fat for warmth, more hydration for warm weather. www.dialogue2.ca

Babies are hardwired to thrive with THEIR mother’s bioflora. Baby’s gut is propagated with mother’s bioflora and GOOD bacteria during a natural birth. An aseptic Csection robs babies of this ‘inoculation’ to bolster their immature immune system and set up their intestines for healthy digestion. Infants often suffer severe pain and unrelenting crying1 when they are unable to digest ‘formula’.

Anything other than nature’s recipe for success necessitates remediation.

Any way you look at formula, it is indefensible. Unrecognized harm keeps turning up and new markets open up – for symptom suppression. It is lucrative. Very! Is it good for the economy? YES! But it depends on which side of the fence you stand! Is it good for people? NO! As our health declines nationally – Pharmaceutical profits skyrocket. Patented medicine is the No. 2 profit centre of the globe! Second only to the WAR MACHINE – the No. 1 profit centre which insures military hegemony, while the Pharma-Surgical Industrial complex tags along.

Did Henri Nestlé have any idea of the profound harm he introduced? Likely not, and even if he had, would he continue? Probably – ethics and prudence don’t often play a huge role in BIG business.2 If instead, Nestlé had used his influence advocating equal status of women, the world would likely be a lot different today. Women of his era would have been afforded the egalitarian respect they deserved and honoured for their pivotal place in raising healthy and happy children. They would have had the VOTE – to influence fresh thinking within the ‘old boys network’ and we may not have seen the horrors of World War I. And the ‘war machine’ would surely not hold TOP STATUS as THE global profit centre.

Sadly it would be four long hard decades to see any change in the move towards women’s rightful status.

Even 148 years ago, patented medicine had a toe hold on us. GRIPE WATER, a patented pharmaceutical concoction spiked with alcohol was already on the market. Used by nannies – likely to quell babies’ pain of flatulence. Often resulting from air ingested during inconsolable and intense crying from baby’s separation anxiety. This ‘spiked’ concoction gives new meaning to: “mothers’ little helper”. A ‘nip’ for baby and ONE for Mom – from another bottle.  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 35

COLIN KNAUF, BREASTFEEDING, contd.

There are premium profits to be made purveying solutions to suppress symptoms of the many disorders which follow, when we chose to foil Nature’s highly evolved and perfected plan.

If we look at current scientific findings3, we will learn the truth – infant formula compromises health. This is not NEWS. Then why don’t we know it? When Scientific studies ascribe disrepute to ‘big money’s’ products; they are often suppressed. They are unheralded by the effectively silenced, servile and managed media. If negative studies manage to surface and reach the public’s consciousness they are quickly countered by well-paid experts in the field.

Commonly called ‘liars for hire’ who publish ‘managed’ studies and swamp the media with lavish invitational press conferences and press releases proffering findings contrary to truth. And if that doesn’t work, then University research funding is threatened, drawn out costly legal actions taken and reputations libelled and ruined. Whistle blowers are not as well protected as we like to believe.

Effective formula marketing and careful contrivance has normalized formula to the point that the BABY BOTTLE has become the ICON of contemporary babyhood! Mothers are too busy working outside and inside the home, while dealing with family health issues – to find time to seek the truth: Mother’s milk – the elixir of life – is the currency of health. It isn't a choice – it is our primal life force.

Nature’s innate handbook imbedded in our DNA, leads us instinctively through our dynamic childbirth process and on to our crucial first hour – Nature’s ‘window of opportunity’. The opportunity to bond with our babies and suckle them on the milk of human kindness – the magic elixir of life. When we trust our innate preprogrammed script and ourselves, amazing things happen.

Newborn humans like all mammals are instinctively empowered and ‘hardwired’ to make the incredible journey from birth canal with umbilical cord in-tow, to mother's warmth and nourishment – on their own! They will 'latch on' naturally – no lactation consultant required.

Mother need never suffer discomfort from a poor ‘latch’.

[Search Suggestion – “BREAST CRAWL” and VIDEO].

It is not just a‘warm and fuzzy’ idea of previous generations. It is a vital and wonderful start to a symbiotic experience, imbuing both with oxytocin and all necessary biochemistry to thrive and sustain a loving relationship.

Baby’s suckling triggers mother’s pituitary gland to supply another large boost of oxytocin – essential in safely ‘birthing’ the placenta. It starts contractions again, to push the placenta from the womb. It is vital in effectively staunching blood flow between the lining of the womb and placenta, to slough it from the womb WITHOUT HAEMORRHAGE. 36 dialogue

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Another of Nature’s many safeguards to insure baby has a healthy mother guiding it along the path to a simpler and safer life, naturally.

Mothers' milk provides antibodies, hydration, calming and 'feel good' hormones and complex and complete nutrition, dynamically tailored hourly, to satisfy every stage of development with timely nutrients, whether for brains or bones. Breast feeding is pivotal in speeding mothers' recovery, weight loss and a host of health protections.

Risk of common cancers and postpartum depression is significantly reduced. Babies suffer less gastrointestinal health issues and are at reduced risk of – leukaemia, childhood obesity, type 1 & type 2 diabetes, allergies, dental malformation, auditory & vision deficits, eczema, respiratory issues, heart disease, and much more. Suckled children exhibit higher IQ and self esteem. They generally eclipse North American milestones of development. The physicality of early loving touch, vital to psychological and physiological health, is cherished, fostering healthy brains, social adjustment while diminishing promiscuity, aggression and violence.4 “Suckling not only delivers perfect meals served at the right temperature and in comfort – it develops and aligns components of the mouth and jaw naturally! Essential in decreasing risk of: SIDS, acute inner ear ache (AOM 5), corrective surgery, dental caries, orthodontia, optical correction etc. Statistics and science tell us – loving, social and productive humans capable of enjoying long term relationships and happy marital life – result from healthy attachment through breast feeding and ‘hands on nurturing’.”3 The net result is HEALTH. Meaning less suffering, health care costs, remedial & restorative services and countless other personal and public expense. Taxes go down and incomes rise, allowing one parent a hiatus from employment to raise healthy and happy children who respect themselves, others and the planet. Science tells us natural holistic birth, mother’s milk, tender touch and close physical contact for the primal year are hallmarks of health, harmony and peace.

The REAL ‘take away’ – we have learned recently – Breast milk contains STEM CELLS! Which can become any human cell, to repair cellular damage as baby develops!

The first and most important tenet of the Hippocratic Oath has been trampled in the race for profit: FIRST DO NO HARM? Lobbied Politicians and their medical cadre of policy makers entrusted with the national health are easily outwitted by highly effective and devious ‘Doctors of Spin’.

It is time we recaptured our nature and put ‘medical polices and procedures which promote profit before prudence’ – in the trash bin with ‘blood letting’ and lobotomies.

We need to trust our instincts and our nature to put humanity and peace ahead of multinational corporate cupidity.  www.dialogue2.ca

COLIN KNAUF, BREASTFEEDING, contd.

FOOTNOTES: 1. CRYING: Tragically, unconsolable babies and relentless crying combined with desperate, inexperienced care givers with limited network, support or information can result in caregivers pushed to their limit and unable to cope, sometimes provoking ‘shaken baby syndrome’ and infanticide. Statistically, this is not likely with breast feeding and the bond that results.

2. ETHICS: www.reuters.com/search?blob=formula+price+fixing+china Infant formula marketing practices behind breastfeeding decline: IBFAN - by Mark Astley, DairyReporter.com 19-May-14 Breastfeeding rates have declined significantly in Asia as a result of intensifying competition in the infant formula sector, according to a report from the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) LINK: http://tinyurl.com/DRibfan • http://www.babymilkaction.org/archives/384 3. BREAST FEEDING BENEFITS: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812877/ www.nrdc.org/breastmilk/benefits.asp/ www.cornucopia.org/replacing-mother-infant-formula-report/ www.mommyagogo.ca/articles/archives/for-2008/march/drjack-newman-on-dha-ara-in-formula/ NATURAL NURTURING RESEARCH PRIMER www.syncogent.com/CuddleKARRIER/reasons.html 4. VIOLENCE: http://tinyurl.com/4-course-pdf http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=496876

Interaction Between Birth Complications and Early Maternal Rejection in Predisposing Individuals to Adult Violence: Specificity to Serious, Early-Onset Violence – LINK: http://journals.psychiatryonline.org/data/journals/AJP/3680/1265.pdf

and: www.cornucopia.org/replacing-mother-infant-formula-report/ 5. AOM (acute otitis media) is one of the biggest of many avoidable pains to children and drains on Health Care. It is responsible for 8% of medical visits of children under the age of 14, resulting in surgery on 1 in 4 children. Antibiotic impotence is a direct result of overuse in treating AOM, leaving us vulnerable to the threat of super bugs. A hospital is a prime place to encounter superbugs [like MRSA —Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus] which have mutated to resist antibiotics; putting patients at risk of nosocomial infections with dire consequences. The sequelae of harm from high interventionist birth requires remedial attention and hospital visits and stays. A double whammy. First we make you sick from lack of due diligence at birth, then put you at greater risk by hospitalizing, to correct the harm. Health has become a slippery slope.

“A post-antibiotic era – in which common infections and minor injuries can kill – far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st Century.”

– World Health Organization [WHO] Copyright © 2004-2014 C. Knauf, SynCOGENT DESIGN & DIRECTION This article [abridged] first appeared in the inaugural issue of Wee Welcome Magazine, Sept 2004 - the magazine which encourages hospitality to babies, parents and families who choose healthy living.

"If I could speak, here's what I would say ..."

The Science and Symbiosis of Natural Nurture, abridged in verse

By Colin Knauf

If I could speak, here's what I'd say Happy in your arms, I want to stay.

I am your gift, and you are mine too!

Love bonds together, both me and you.

Take me with you, balanced upon your hip when you work, walk or take a short trip.

My muscle tone and self esteem are greater, sooner I will walk, rather than later.

Don't let a schedule furrow your brow.

We need to enjoy this time, right now.

Right now is the best time for me to hold.

Wait 'til you're less busy, and I'll be too old.

Give me the hugs and security, for which I long, so that I know you love me and that I belong.

With your love and help, I will find my wings, so that I may move on, to much greater things.

Cuddle me tenderly, close to your chest.

It is here next to you, that I am at my best.

Your rhythmic breathing and beating heart, contentment and comfort, to me impart.

Very soon you will find, you're in great shape your clothes will fit well and beautifully drape.

Secure in your love, I won't cry or cling, if you leave me awhile and go out on a fling.

To see you, smell you, assured by your voice, all wonderfully simple, yet help me rejoice.

A cuddle, a kiss, some play and frolic, Can banish a mood, and prevent nasty colic.

To dream of our future is significant too, And I know a career is important to you.

When I am older, we will join in the race, and we'll be more able, to keep up the pace.

When we're 'in touch', it reduces our stress, we are happiest then, and worry much less.

Safe in your arms, dispels all my fears.

My beaming smiles replace anxious tears.

Right now, what I know, as certain and right is that you are my sun, the source of my light.

I need very little, neither expensive or new.

What I need is your love, your time and you.

Please hold me, hug me, show me your day, you'll be sharing your love, in a marvellous way.

My learning is best when perched at your side, your arms as my classroom, and you as my guide.

Please hold me up high, so that I might see all the many wonders, surrounding me.

When you hold me close, as you socialize, my mind expands and more clearly I vocalize! www.dialogue2.ca

— C. Knauf We can never hold babies too much nor spoil them.

When raised with compassion and love, babies will mature to be happy, healthy, loving, social, wise, creative and whole beings. Unlike many of our generation who have 'razed' and crazed the planet.

From the Desk of Colin Knauf, Nanaimo, 250-327-9515  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 37

Intimate Details

The Poet & the Philosopher: Dennis Lee & George Grant J. S. Porter, Hamilton, Ontario – www.spiritbookword.net

Philosophers and poets don’t generally have a lot to say to each other. There are, of course, notable exceptions.

Heidegger read poetry deeply all his life, Hölderlin was Hegel’s childhood friend, and Dennis Lee was a close friend, editor and publisher of George Grant.

Lee wrote a masterly essay on his mentor called “Grant’s Impasse: Beholdenness and the Silence of Reason” in his prose work Body Music (1998). Lee credits Grant as the first thinker to articulate a hard truth that you can’t talk about the modern predicament without trapping yourself in the language created by modernity. Lee’s succinct way of putting it in Savage Fields is, “What form of thought can arise which does not re-embody the crisis it is analyzing?”

Grant wrote the concluding essay, “Dennis Lee – Poetry and Philosophy”(1982), for a Lee tribute by the Toronto magazine Descant, called Tasks of Passion: Dennis Lee at Mid-Career – and reprinted in The George Grant Reader. In the essay Grant speaks openly of his respect and deep affection for Dennis Lee. He also reveals a detail that I haven’t found him so explicit about in other writings, or even in personal letters. “Whether for good or ill, a tiresome old manic-depressive such as myself would never have put the writings he cared about into a book if it were not for Lee’s sane encouragement.”

The thinker and the poet met at Rochdale College in Toronto, where Lee taught for a time and Grant used to visit to see his daughter Rachel. Each found the other a kindred spirit in opposition to the Vietnam War. Prior to meeting Grant in the flesh, Lee had met him on the page, in “Canadian Fate and Imperialism” – first published in the Winnipeg socialist magazine Canadian Dimension.

The reading was a turning point for Lee. He found his poetic voice. Grant biographer William Christian quotes Lee as saying, “To find one’s tongue-tied sense of civil loss and bafflement given words at last, to hear one’s own most inarticulate hunches out loud…was to stand erect at last in one’s own space.”

Grant returned the compliment by saying that Lee 38 dialogue

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had great clarity about the horror of the Vietnam War and the complicity of the Canadian government. He also understood that the “technological multiversity was not outside that complicity but central to it.”

Grant gratefully acknowledged Lee’s influence throughout his writing life. He dedicated Technology and Empire (1969) to Lee, and his wife Sheila – a volume Lee edited and published at the House of Anansi.

Grant also included Lee in the dedication to Englishspeaking Justice (1976). Lee, on the other hand, uses a Grant quotation as an epigraph to his “Civil Elegies” in Civil Elegies and Other Poems (1968): “Man is by nature a political animal, and to know that citizenship is an impossibility is to be cut off from one of the highest forms of life.” The quotation is from Grant’s essay “Canadian Fate and Imperialism.”

Grant has continued to be poetic nourishment for Lee in his songs of innocence and experience, of summer and winter, and songs in-between. Lee has learned, particularly in the volume SoCool (2004), to dance and reflect, to think and sing in “thoughtsong.” The words he incarnates or is claimed by include Awe, Beholdenness, Thankfulness, Mystery and Tremendum. The words are also at the heart of what Grant reached for, but may not have fully enfleshed.

In Lee’s poem “Deeper,” if you lean your ear into it, you may hear Grant’s voice as well as Lee’s: Often at night, sometimes out in the snow or going into the music, the voice says, "Deeper."

I don't know what it means.

Just, "Push it. Go further. Go deeper."

And when they come talking at me I get antsy at times, but always the voice keeps saying: "That is not it. Go deeper."

There is danger in this, also breakaway hunches and I believe it can issue in flickers of homing; but I cannot control it, all I know is the one thing – "Deeper. You must go further. You must go deeper.”

Dennis Lee, like his deceased friend George Grant, knows that in “the slaughterhouse world” you must always be open to “the luminous presence.”* *(Lee’s phrases in “The Death of Harold Ladoo” from Nightwatch: New & Selected Poems 1968-1996.)  www.dialogue2.ca

A Story From My Travels…

A smile that might well have lit up the world Cainnech Ó Sullibhain (Ken Tellis)

In December 1963, the ship that I served on was carrying some general cargo on board for Tanganyika, East Africa. They were part of an aid package for Tanganyika from the Commonwealth Colombo Plan in Britain.

When we headed downriver and anchored beside an old German Fort, I knew we were in the wilds. My first thought was to get ashore somehow and reach a place where I might get some decent food, or so I thought. I got ashore by a small dinghy and made my way through the jungle. This area was well known for Lions, so I was a bit wary of where I was going. I reached what seemed like a road out of the clearing and was walking to who knows where, when a big lorry came by carrying some goods for the main town.

As it happened the African driver of the lorry stopped and wishes me: “Jambo Bwana!” (Greetings Sir!) To which, I replied Jambo, in return [and got a lift!]

The driver of the truck could not speak any English, nor could I speak KiSwahili, so there I sat and looked over the driver, who in turn, looked me over. Since there were no other words expressed, because of the language barrier, we just sat there in silence. The driver kept looking at me, and after a while, I was beginning to wonder what was going through his mind? When we reached the Town of Mtwara, the driver stopped and beckoned me to get out because I had reached my destination.

I was in a tizzy as to what I could offer this man. I kept thinking: If I offer him money, I might insult him. So, I decided on a different approach. I was wearing a bright yellow shirt with diamond patterns upon it. I just took off the shirt and offered it to the African driver. He looked at me, in a way that I had never been looked at; on his face was the brightest smile that I had ever seen.

Even the Sun seemed dim compared to his smile. I bid him goodbye, the second word I had spoken in his presence and carried on into town.

A few days later, some shipmates told me that an African man had come to see me. The man had some fruit and he would not sell it to them. Selling fruit was the custom in East Africa, where Africans made a little extra money by the sale of fruit. I was totally puzzled by what they told me. Here we were in Mtwara www.dialogue.ca

and I could not figure out who knew me, in this part of Africa? When I went to my cabin, there was an African man waiting for me at the door. He wished me “Jambo Bwana” and put out his hand with some Papayas wrapped in newspaper. I then recognized this man as the African driver that had given me a lift and to whom I had given my shirt. He was beaming at me, and I smiled back at him. It was the same kind of smile that he gave me the day I offered him my shirt.

FROM: www.parkavenuegazette.com/Cainnech.htm 

“I Am Mata Hari” Do you remember the teaser for Richard Wm Short's novel -in-progress about Mata Hari [Vol. 26, No. 6 (May 2012)]??

That issue featured Chapter 1 of Richard's new book with an introduction by Michael Neilly.

The novel is now available as a Kindle e-Book at Amazon.

If you'd like a gifted electronic copy of the finished electronic version to read on any Kindlecompatible device, including computers, tablets or smart phones, etc, just send him an eMail: devonia@devonia.com , with 'Mata Hari' in the Subject line. No strings attached! You don't have to do anything more, whatsoever. No one will contact you afterwards. There won't be any recorded information or never-ending eMails. You'll just receive a link for a download Gift copy from Amazon so you can read the finished version of, "I am Mata Hari ~ the life story of the world's most famous dancer, courtesan and spy". 

An Inspiring Quote

from Sarah van Gelder YES! Magazine…

“The media spaces where the imaginative, contrarian, investigative, and visionary stories can be told are precious resources. They allow us to question the status quo, try out new ideas, and make change… These free spaces are especially needed now, when so much we’ve taken for granted about our world is up for grabs.”

– Sarah van Gelder, Co-founder and Editor in Chief of Yes! Magazine, Summer 2014 issue, p.1 [Website: www.yesmagazine.org ] VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 39

Discarded Wisdom

“Stirring The Soup”

Marie Gaudet, Edmonton AB

Here I am in what is commonly known as the “third quarter” of my life (50 to 75-year range).

Although officially retired, I am looking for work to supplement my pension and to help me remain as relevant and productive a member of society as I can be. Finding employment at what I consider a still-young age (50’s) and in the private sector as opposed to public which I was more accustomed to, has however proven to be more than a little challenging.

Oh sure, I had heard that others had difficulty finding work but I mistakenly assumed that those others were older than I or had perhaps a less impressive CV or were looking for higher pay for doing a less responsible job… you know, any or all of the above conundrums from which I was unique and detached. Huh. I was affronted indeed to find myself being tossed into the heap like all the others, some older, some younger, all incredibly qualified and with the wisdom of the ages beneath their silver crowns.

Although I’m still having some great difficulty with being disregarded, rebuffed and given the brush-off, in my travails I have come to understand the employer’s side of the equation a bit better, even though I don’t always agree with it. One employer, when asked for interview feedback, explained it quite succinctly to me. I had applied on a 2.5 day per week job which paid $13. per hour and I was appalled that I couldn’t even land such humble work after what I consider a distinguished career!

During the feedback session though, it was revealed that I had mentioned in the interview that I was looking for part-time work up to 4 days a week, with a minimum salary of $18 per hour. I failed to add that I was quite prepared to take the hours and salary offered, with a query that with time, perhaps one or both of those elements might be increased? So she determined that if hired, I would be gone as soon as a better offer presented itself. She would’ve then been back to square one after having taken the time to train me. So I can certainly understand where she was coming from and her feedback was much appreciated. That 40 dialogue

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being said (a little voice in my head squeaks), would common sense not dictate that if I’m applying for a 2.5-day a week job at $13./hour, I’m prepared to accept those hours and that pay for a medium to longterm stint?

Also, doesn’t everybody in the world by now know that mature workers have one hell of a work ethic; have an ingrained concept of loyalty to company; have reduced time demands and therefore fewer employment distractions; are capable of mentoring, leading, and coaching; are flexible; are much healthier now than the last generation of older workers; have pension plans that can counterbalance some of the employer’s cost of health care insurance; perform with punctuality, honesty and integrity; and take pride in a job well done? And that’s just part of the icing on top of the cake, with older workers possessing a broad base of transferable skills developed during years of adapting to rapid change in tools, machines, equipment, and technologies.

All that experience at the new employer’s disposal on top of doing the modest job that is being offered and they aren’t interested in playing those odds? I mean, who passes up someone like that? That’s just plain irrational!

Unless of course, the truth is a little more intricate.

For instance, in Alberta, our government is always bragging about our low unemployment rate. We are the province with the most $$ and the most jobs, they say (4.5% unemployment rate in March 2014, and even that’s only because of all the extra people moving out here and joining the labour force, so the story goes). Well sure, most people are employed, but how much are you paying them? Having actually been out there looking for retirement jobs as I and many of my highly skilled worker friends are, it’s easy to see that Alberta’s blue-collar class is also paid the least (minimum wage being $9.95, the lowest in the country by five cents, less if the employer can get away with it).

Knowing that, one may further wonder if the reason why the older worker is being ignored is due to the employer being aware that the more experienced worker won’t stand for being taken advantage of, as opposed to a younger or foreign employee who, due to his lack of information or confidence, may  www.dialogue2.ca

Marie Gaudet, Discarded Wisdom, contd.

unknowingly agree to unfair treatment and compensation in order to keep a job.

Another possibility that I’ve been wondering about – and this can’t possibly be true, but I can’t shake it -- is whether hiring managers are actually afraid of us older people. Do the younger generations think we want to steal their jobs? Do 40-year old managers feel awkward talking to us because they can’t match our years of experience? Do they think all mature people looking for work have been “laid-off” by their last employer (in quotation marks because many are dismissed in the guise of being laid off), therefore there must be something wrong with them? Is our gray hair scary to them? You may laugh at this last, seemingly ludicrous notion, but I’ve been told by my hairdresser that women have come in to her salon asking for a color because they can’t get a job otherwise! Do we remind you of your mom or dad Mr. Manager, is that why you don’t want us around? Come on already, grab a brain and use it.

I personally am one of those mature workers who is actually looking forward to working with younger people again as they bring a whole new set of skills to the table PLUS they still know how to have fun, something that’s suffered a devastating decline in these past years of budget cuts, recession and regression (to the detriment of the organization, I might add). Having

lived the decrease of vigor associated with having no time to have fun anymore, and also being a bit put off with our steadily advancing age, mature workers are the first to want to return to the very recent “good old days” when people enjoyed going to work… and young people will make that happen, make no mistake. So we very much look forward to continuing to work with them.

So to those who think that hiring older people will granify (describes something that is granny-like, vintage or retro) their workplace, you could be turning away the very people who can halt your slumping corporate culture and bring some renewed energy to it. While the younger generations are bringing fun and their ample skills back to the workplace, we mature workers could be there to help mentor, coach and support them. And we’d do it without wanting their jobs because we no longer want all that responsibility, nor do we need that huge paycheque we used to have.

We just want to help… and that, just by itself, will bring meaning to our lives. So, win-win, right?

Bottom line is that wisdom should be revered, not discarded. Please treat us as the wondrous resources that we are. Just because we have gray hair doesn’t mean we no longer have gray matter.

Marie Gaudet, Edmonton 

Lets speak up about anti-Christian bigotry From Ken Palmer, Calgary AB

The Atheistic Secular Humanist (anti-Christian) noose is ever tightening! They’re getting much more open about it now! – Ken Palmer Sandy (who passed this "news item" to me) and I and thousands of others are getting so fed up with the antiChristian movement. In this case, the Ontario (“Upper Canada”) law society – and the Nova Scotia Barrister Society – thought they can pull off a discrimination so blatant and in such a bullying fashion – blacklisting graduates from a Christian law school in B.C., called Trinity Western University (TWU) because of that school’s Christian student code of conduct.(1) The full story is available at the website [link follows].

After you open the website, please watch the video (with Ezra Levant) to understand the overall story.

Please consider prayerfully if you would like to sign this petition (bottom of web page) on behalf of Trinity www.dialogue2.ca

Western University's new law school.(2) “The Real Bigots” Campaign is a petition set up so that our voices MUST BE HEARD. LINK: www.therealbigots.com/#.U2rCH0-xa1g.mailto

Ken Palmer Editor’s Footnotes: (1) Trinity Western University students must sign a covenant recognizing the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.

(2) The B.C. government approved the creation of a private faith-based law school at the Fraser Valley's university in December 2013.

Updates: April 11, 2014 – The BC Law Society voted down a motion that would have barred graduates of Trinity Western University's new law school from practising law in B.C. because of the school's ban on gay sex.

May 22, 2014 – the Law Society of Manitoba decided to allow Christian law school graduates from Trinity Western University to practice law in the province. (Read more at the website: LINK: www.therealbigots.com/#.U2rCH0-xa1g.mailto ) [Story at CBC News: http://tinyurl.com/CBC-TWUlaw ]  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 41

Ramblings

Brother, can you spare a microloan?

Randy Vancourt, Toronto ON

Rumour has it I run a real estate and microfinance company in Harare, Zimbabwe. Some may find this odd, as I live in Toronto and have never been to Africa.

Truthfully, it was news to me as well, until about two years ago when I received a request from a magazine in Zimbabwe, via email, to proofread an advertisement for “my” company.

This didn’t smack of the usual, “I Am A Nigerian Prince And Need Your Help In Securing $10 Million Dollars,” kind of spam that we all know and love. This message was strangely particular and didn’t seem remotely interested in my bank account information.

Fascinated, I started to read the attached advertisement and immediately noticed the company’s email address.

It was mine. My personal email address was somehow in a Zimbabwean publication, advertising real estate and microfinance deals.

Now I have only the vaguest notion of what microfinance is so I was pretty certain I didn’t run a company that dealt with it – particularly not in Africa.

A quick online search took me to the website of the actual company in Harare, Zimbabwe. Their Contact page revealed that their email address really was identical to mine, with the addition of the number “1” at the end. Clearly I had got to Gmail first.

I emailed the company and informed them of the error; an employee named Tariro was very apologetic and said she would contact the magazine to make a correction. An hour later I received an email saying that unfortunately the ad had already gone to press without anyone proofing it.

As this magazine was national, my email address

“Rags to Riches” Documentary

(Journeyman.tv - October 2012) Reese Fernandez, in

Manilla, Philippines: Women who once struggled for survival on a mountain of garbage in Manila have become a valuable producer in the Filipino fashion industry. Its ultimate success is "bringing back the 42 dialogue

SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO. 4

quickly spread all around Zimbabwe. Within a few days I started receiving messages from everyday Zimbabweans interested in my services. No one could blame them - with the kind of deals I was offering, I was obviously the go-to place for all your real estate (and microfinance) needs.

The strangest part of this entire scenario, if any one aspect could possibly lay claim to that honour, is that I used my family name as my email address. How an African real estate company ended up with my surname as their company name remains a mystery. My background is French-Canadian so the chances of any of my ancestors leaving a legacy in Zimbabwe are pretty remote.

It’s now two years later, and in spite of my best efforts, the Zimbabwean magazine continues sending me ads to proofread. Either they’re in too much of a hurry to type that final “1” or, as I secretly like to believe, President-for-Life Robert Mugabe has decreed that all numbers should be removed from keyboards. It wouldn’t be the craziest idea he ever had.

In fact, I still receive at least a dozen messages weekly that are meant for the Harare office. Requests to join Zimbabwean business organizations, invitations to attend conventions and even the occasional offer of a speaking engagement.

I take it all in stride. I dutifully forward on the more important messages, and delete the ones that are obvious spam. One interesting upside is that I no longer seem to receive annoying emails from Nigerian princes. Perhaps it’s a result of my email address being well known in Zimbabwe, but all my offers of fabulous riches now come from someone claiming to be a lawyer in Madrid.

So if you ever happen to be in the market for a nice three-bedroom in Harare, Zimbabwe, just give my real estate (and microfinance) company a call. Tell Tariro I sent you; you might even get family rates. ~ Randy Vancourt, www.randyvancourt.com 

dignity of the people." “We had big dreams .... The key is... we’re open to collaboration... trying to look at the good things in other people and how we can harness that to make our mission & vision even bigger (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM)  and more effective.” www.dialogue2.ca

“From Down the 401” My fellow Canadians,

Few things in life are more frustrating for a writer than having to change the topic of a column you figured out you want to write.

Welcome to my spring.

First I was going to write about positive vibes and attitudes and gush about my acting career. But then in short order: I lost a commercial and movie I was sure I was going to land; the mini-series I was cast in failed to get funding and is now looking like it will not go ahead; and a commercial I DID land started airing in May…WITHOUT ME IN IT! (They ARE allowed to do so according to our contract, and I knew there was a slight chance, but I refused to believe after this many years that this kind of bad luck would occur.) And as of this writing, two more projects I was pretty confident about have moved on without me.

So THAT’s out.

Then I was going to write about romance and hope in a “love is all you need” column, when my girlfriend* of three months left me. So in the midst of that shock and devastation, I was going to write about heartbreak and loss. And then she realized the huge mistake she made and came back to me, for which I am supremely grateful and delighted. No permanent heartbreak there.

So THAT’s out.

THEN I was going to write about the Ontario provincial election coming up – and about how, since (PC) Tim Hudak and (Lib.) Kathleen Wynne seem to be cancelling each other out through incompetence, negativity and fear, that it was time for Andrea Horwath to be given a chance to lead this province the way responsible governments out west had before. And then news leaked that Horwath’s website was put together by AMERICAN designers and computer technicians, and, if that wasn’t bad enough, some traditional NDP supporters sent a public letter accusing her of calling an unnecessary

Lou Israel, Toronto election rather than support a very progressive budget, and threatening to withdraw support for her since she seems to be enabling a right-wing government to win.

[LINK: http://rabble.ca/news/2014/05/leaked-letter-showsprogressives-disatisfaction-horwaths-ndp ]

And then I got a position working in the actual election (which, by the time you read this column will be over; I predict another Wynne minority), which meant that I would have to appear politically neutral for the duration of the campaign and not seen to be supporting one party or another.

So I guess THAT’s out.

And then I thought, well, why not just give up and say that no matter how hard you work, nothing changes or seems to get better? Because I am still out of work after A YEAR AND A HALF and nothing steady on the horizon.

And THEN: the director of the series mentioned above (who called my performance in the trailer we made “stellar”) writes me and sends me a script for another movie, and wants to (if I read him correctly) give me one of the leads in THAT. No idea how THIS will be funded but that makes THREE directors who actually write roles WITH ME IN MIND. Which is the highest praise indeed for an actor.

And THEN: I landed a second interview with a local company and discovered a company based in Kingston has a perfect job for me (in my opinion; I still have to convince them).

So those are welcome changes. I guess THAT idea (that NOTHING changes) goes to the scrap heap!

To sum up: by the time you read this, I may or may not be newly employed, within or outside my field of expertise, by a company that may or may not be located in the Greater Toronto Area. I may or may not be well into a summer of a long-term satisfying romantic relationship with a woman who may or may not call herself my girlfriend or equivalent. I may or may not be working on a film I have auditioned for and may or may not be in an as-yet-unnamed project I read and was deemed perfect for. Oh, and I may or may not have figured out how to hook my laptop up to my TV and may or may not have been forced to buy a new computer as a result. 

“Rags to Riches” Documentary, contd.

The project empowers more than 450 women, but with demand increasing from overseas, Reese hopes to help many more. [Reporter/Camera-David Brill; www.dialogue.ca

Producer-Donald Cameron, Journeyman.tv Video LINK: www.brasschecktv.com/page/26637.html - From Brasscheck TV VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Lou Israel, From Down the 401, contd.

As well, the Ontario government may or may not have changed from a minority Wynne government; the Toronto Blue Jays may or may not be in first place; and the CFL may or may not be on strike.

I guess I will have to employ the old standby when I am not sure of something: “Can I get back to you on that?”

I may or may not have a worthy recipient of the

Lou Laurel this month: and if I do, I may or may not remember to edit the column to put them in. If not, have a great summer everyone, stay safe and give as much love to those around you as you can!

Your Fellow Canadian, Lou Israel Multilingual proofreader/editor/Actor/singer/writer/MC Email: angloo@rogers.com

* The term terrifies her and she refuses to use it. So by reading this column, each you agrees to not show it to her and freak her out. Deal? 

A tribute to our comrade Matthew D. Glenn

who passed away on February 12th 2014, at age 81 The executive and directors of the Anglo Society of a letter he would say, “Well, I guess that one wasn’t New Brunswick are pleased to have this opportunity to politically correct;” but he kept on writing. express our gratitude and honor to have had Matthew Another of Matt’s regular quotes was: “Be isolated, “Matt” Glenn as our president and friend for the past Be ignored, Be attacked, Be in doubt, Be frightened several years. but do NOT be silenced.” (Bertrand Russell) There were times he endured many of those, with As most are aware, after courage and determination. retiring he became totally committed to the society and He will be forever remembered in the hearts and minds its causes, never wavering, of all who have known and worked with him. and in turn keeping others We sincerely thank all those who participated in praismotivated. ing and honoring Matthew at the service held for him Matt was forever quoting at the Chipman United Church February 16th 2014.

Winston Churchill’s rallying Executive and directors, Anglo Society of New Brunswick, 11 Entlebucher Ct., Fredericton N.B. E3G 0A1 cry “Never give up, Never, Never, Never.”

French groups mobilizing to On important occasions, he rarely missed appearing at the Provincial legislature or city hall. It didn’t make Ottawa officially bilingual matter whether he was by himself or with several Kim McConnell [ kimlian@bell.net ] other supporters.

April 15, 2014: This message was first sent to the When politicians witnessed this tall man with the black readers in Ontario because the next target for the French advance is the City of Ottawa after which the hat appear with a megaphone in hand, they knew they whole province of Ontario will fall like dominoes. were about to be confronted with some serious quesHowever, I wish to point out to those readers who tions. Most were never really answered but that never don’t live in Ontario that the French zealots are deterred him. He would later state, “Well, we got the marching relentlessly across Canada. This link will message across whether they liked it or not.” give you an idea of their cross-Canada plan. For those For the past few years the Anglo Society has had a who wish to read it in English, copy & paste the booth during the Chipman fair in August to fundraise French version to Google Translate and you’ll see and promote the society. During those times we what they are planning. The language is sometimes viewed first hand as to how caring and devoted Matt very awkward but you can get the gist of it and I’ll tell was to the people of the community whether they you it is not a pretty picture. Now that it is established agreed with him or not. that Quebec Separatism is dead for the time being, the He always had special kind words for Kelly and her staff at the Grand Lake Mirror and greatly appreciated French will push even harder to ensure that their domination is across the whole of Canada. having his letters published.

LINK: www.expressottawa.ca/Actualites/2014-04-02/articleWhenever some of the other N.B. newspapers rejected 3674512/Francophonie%3A-des-defis-presents-dans-toutesles-provinces/1

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

www.dialogue.ca

“Hannah’s Hobbies”

Shopping For Wallpaper

Dorothy Hannah, Lacolle QC

type, I immediately returned to the store to get it The other day I was reminded of a right with a second try. little project my husband, Alex, and After carefully going through all the different selecI undertook years ago. I remember it tions of wallpaper, I was sure I now had the right one. well, because it went very wrong. In It certainly had a lot of nice green vines on it. Again, our house we have a small hallway as soon as I got home, I held my choice up for Alex’s that runs between the kitchen and the approval, and again the look on his face told me I was living room. We had decided that in that passageway, wrong. I had to be very wrong, because the look on one of the walls was rather blank and boring, so we his face this time could only be described as stunned. talked it over and agreed that putting some wallpaper There was a pause and then Alex quietly said, “Doroon it would spruce things up. I have no sense of colthy, have you really looked at it?” our, so in our house, when it came to decorating and I whipped it around and took a good look and what picking colours, Alex was it. In the morning, if I end did I see, a bunch of naked ladies! There they were, a up dressed with my clothes colour coordinated, it is whole lot of voluptuous naked ladies lurking in my more by good luck, than good management. In fact beautiful green vines. some of my colour Horrors! Not only that, combinations have amused they were holding apples my family from time to time. over strategic parts of their After some discussion, Alex naked anatomy. The apsaid it would look nice with ples had a bite out of them something with vines on it. and those cheeky ladies At my blank look he waved were pretending they were his arms up and down and Eve in the Garden of Eden. said, “You know, with green, After I got over the shock, viney, ferny looking things, Alex and I had such a good running up and down.” laugh; it was worth my Surprisingly enough, I undershopping goof. stood what he meant. I was We were still giggling and going grocery shopping that I was wiping tears from day, so I said I would pick it my eyes, when I had a up. Sounds easy, right? great idea. I looked at Alex Dorothy’s “Viney” wallpaper!

Wrong! I had a terrible time and said, “Let’s put it up making up my mind. anyway.” Right away I knew by the wicked gleam in Finally I found something that I thought looked like his eyes, that he was all for it. what Alex had described with his arm waving. When And that is what we did. It is a little embarrassing to I got home, I couldn’t wait to show him my purchase admit that it is still there, but it is washable, so no proband held it up for his inspection. One look at his face lem. In all the years those bold ladies have graced our told me I had failed my mission. It was funny watchwall, hundreds of people have passed them by, and I ing him trying to find a polite way to tell me he get a lot of fun out of knowing only four people have thought my choice stank. At all times, my husband ever noticed them. I know, because I have kept count.  was kind. After a while, he just shook his head and "And those who were seen dancing said, “No, it just looks like a lot of posies”. The way were thought to be insane by those he said ‘posies’ was so scathing, that I burst out laughwho could not hear the music." ing. Of course, as soon as he said it, I could see what – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) he meant and had to agree. Being the determined

www.dialogue.ca

VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 45

“Reminiscence and Revelation”

That Song They Sing in Church…

Mike Harvey, Langley BC

There is a song they sing at the church I attend and the first line reads: “I love myself the way I am.”

What it means, I’m informed, is that this religion believes that we are souls within a body that is upon earth to learn lessons that will eventually elevate us to become part of the Great Creator that made us.

Mike Harvey Some have difficulty singing this and I am definitely amongst that group. Although during most of my life I have, I believe, been kind to others and my brother animals, I am unable to utter these words, as I do not love myself. How has this feeling come about?

Like most of us, I have done things I wish I had not done. I wish I could undo the shooting of all types of upland game birds during the days I lived in Alberta.

There was nothing I enjoyed more than trudging the woods and grassland of the countryside with my Labrador retriever, raising my gun as a bird was flushed from its hiding place and letting go with both barrels of my 12 gauge shot gun. Today I view hunting as barbaric and I avoid meat in my diet.

I also admit to doing other things of which I am now ashamed. Getting drunk is one of them that I learned during my army days in World War 2 and continued into peace time. Other than drunk driving during which I was careful and fortunate not to have had an accident, I have at times exaggerated stories and occasionally have not told the truth. Other than these points I admit to, I believe I have been a kind and caring individual to most people and the many animals who have shared my existence.

Why then my reluctance to sing the words to this song? I now believe it is because of the early days of my life. My mother came from an upper class family in England, where many notables were knighted for their service to king and country and were acknowledged for many things including the abolition of slavery. Some were known for their ability as authors and one of these was Virginia Wolfe, whom I met when I was six.

Mother served in WW1 as an ambulance driver and 46 dialogue

SUMMER 2014, VOL. 27 NO. 4

was selected to be the first woman ever to drive a British monarch on a trip to review the troops.

My father, likewise, came from noble stock; hence my middle name is Templetown in honour of Viscount Templetown of Ireland, a relative of my grandmother.

Dad was Dublin born and had immigrated to Canada prior to 1914. He’d enlisted in the Canadian Army at the outbreak of war and was transferred to the Royal Irish Rifles of the British army as an officer. In Gallipoli, he was severely wounded and was shipped back to a hospital in England to recuperate. That is how my parents met.

The marriage was never happy and, when I was around the age of five, my father and mother split up, intending to get a divorce. [We were living in Calgary.] Up to this age, I lived in an atmosphere of unhappiness and violent arguments. Mother later informed me that my father had assured her, when they were first married, that she would not get pregnant if they indulged in sex and it was with disbelief and horror that she learned she was pregnant. She laughingly told the story that when I was placed in her arms as an infant she said to the nurse, “Take it away as its ugly.”

My next vivid memory was being placed into a private school for boys as a boarder, where the discipline was enforced brutally by a stick smashed across the buttocks. My father by this time had moved from Calgary to Vancouver and my mother had moved into an apartment. What I was unaware of was the fact that my mother and a man were having an affair, which ended in a divorce for both before they were united in marriage. This was a cause of much criticism in those distant days.

My father had not been idle romantically either. For sometime later he too had remarried to a woman who took an instant dislike of me, as later on I was to live with them when, I suppose, the cost of keeping me in a private school became a financial burden. But this comes later.

Other than the harsh discipline, the school named the Strathcona School for Boys was a great learning institute. Amongst my colleagues were a few fellows who distinguished themselves during World War 2; one fellow became a Major General, another a naval  www.dialogue2.ca

Mike Harvey, That Song They Sing in Church, contd.

commander and yet another a gallant infantry captain who received a medal for bravery as well as having dreadful injuries in the process.

I occasionally saw my mother on weekends, but at a distance. Mother usually went out in the evening with her new love, leaving me in the apartment under the supervision of a maid she employed to do the cleaning. The one woman who showed me affection was my teacher, a lady named Mrs. Dunne, who realized, I presume, that I lacked the parental love so important to a young child.

During the two months of summer holidays, I shuttled between Calgary and Vancouver on the 24-hour train trip, under the watchful eye of the porter who had been tipped in advance to assure my well being. I would spend a few days with my father and his new bride before being informed that I was to attend a boy’s summer camp. I couldn’t help but be aware of the relief my father and his new wife felt as they bade me adieu.

This style of life continued until about the age of eight, when I was informed I would be leaving Calgary for a new school in North Vancouver. I recall the dread I felt as my father took me to the forbidding looking building where the boarders were housed and was introduced to the Head Master. Like Strathcona School this new institution, North Shore College, was modeled along the lines of British boy’s schools, with the same emphasis on beating by canes, long hours of study on subjects that included Latin, French and Greek, as well as the compulsory participation in cricket and soccer, and strict adherence to no talking in the dormitory after lights out.

My life was then in reverse as I now lived on the Coast and during the summer holidays would board the CP train for Calgary for a short stay with my mother in her new country home with her new husband. Their life centred upon horses, polo, a pack of Beagle hounds and fall shooting of pheasant, ducks, partridge and geese. My stay was usually about three weeks in length before I was put on the train for my return journey back to Vancouver and another boy’s camp for the remainder of the holidays.

My life continued until I was perhaps eleven or twelve when my father informed me I would no longer be going to North Shore College but would, instead, be www.dialogue2.ca

living with him and his wife Helen. I then said farewell to the strict and unpleasant atmosphere of the school for an equally cold and hostile life style at home with him and Helen, who made it quite clear that I was a burden to her and I must pull my weight if I wished to stay. By this she meant working in her spacious garden and doing whatever chores she assigned to me.

By this time, WW2 had been raging about three years.

The United States had been drawn in as an ally due to the Japanese aggression at Pearl Harbour. As a result, I was allowed to join a cadet corps of the Seaforth Highlanders and then to leave them for a reserve army regiment named the Irish Fusiliers. I thirsted to join in the war effort but was much too young to be accepted by the wartime army.

I worked very hard, although not at high school that I now attended. After the severity of North Shore College, North Vancouver High School was a breeze of pleasant teachers and subjects. I only paid attention to the subjects I liked and was a notable failure in others.

The hard work encompassed jobs for which I was paid and would therefore pay for the clothes I wore. I had a long morning paper route consisting of about 35 homes separated by miles of mountainous roads entailing hard peddling for all up hill sections. I graduated to another job with a company appropriately named ‘Evan, Coleman and Evans’ - the people who imported and distributed coal to the multitude of homes still being heated in this manner.

The coal had to be sorted by types and then sacked into bags for delivery. That is where I came into the picture, under the command of a wiry little Italian fellow named Ejo Mungy (the spelling is probably incorrect). Ejo drove a flat bed truck that groaned up the steep grades on solid rubber tires with a chain drive driving the rear wheels. On the back, sacks of coal were stacked three deep ready for delivery.

Most customers we served lived in posh West Vancouver residences that most had long, winding pathways leading to a coal-chute that deposited the coal in an enclosure near the furnace. Our job, as there were usually two of us, was to have Ejo stick a bag on our back and lug it up the pathway to the chute and deposit it within. The bags of coal were each approximately 100 pounds – with the sharp  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Mike Harvey, That Song They Sing in Church, contd.

edges of pieces of coal jabbing into the carrier’s back. This was lessened by the issuance of thick leather jackets, issued for the job.

Ejo was on piece-work. He received his wages based on the tonnage of coal he delivered. We ‘swampers’ as we who carried the coal on our backs were called, were urged by Ejo to speed up production: “Come on Mike, you strong guy can carry two bags!” Ejo would insist loading a second back on our back. I could carry two and did so regularly for which I was paid 20 cents a ton for delivery. Occasionally when the day was rushed, our demanding overseer would insist we carry a third bag, which reluctantly we did.

When I turned sixteen it was reported that the Canadian Army would now accept recruits as young as 17 years of age. There was nothing in the world more than I wished to do. To get away from the openly hostile attitude of Helen who had by this time produced a half-brother for me and found my presence even more galling. I approached my father about joining the army. He reminded me I was a year too young but agreed he would write a letter stating that I was now in my seventeenth year of life, which indeed I was at age sixteen.

I applied for induction to the army and was duly accepted as a Boy Soldier, making the grand sum of 70 cents a day, half the pay of a regular Private Soldier, but including the same extras such as clothing, food, board, medical and dental care and harsh discipline.

I loved the life and soon became a Corporal instructor.

I saw my parents for short periods when I had leave.

I thought I owed them a visit but now realize they had been glad to see the end of me. I can remember leaving the Calgary railway station bound for overseas loaded with 80 pounds of kit and my rifle when mother appeared out of the crowd. She gave me a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and uttered these inspiring words: “Be a brave soldier, Michael. Don’t let me down!”

Dad died, as I learned from my half-brother’s phone call. Mom’s husband had died previous to that and I’d left the army so that I could help her cope in her now widowed life. I continued to look after her for many years, until she too said farewell to the physical world. I scattered her ashes in a small grove of woods that once were growing on her property.

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Perhaps you will understand why it is difficult for me to sing “I love myself the way I am” – as I don’t.

I am not a psychiatrist but would guess that one’s early upbringing has a bearing on what one feels about one’s self in later life. ***

Age Creeps Upon Us All Mike Harvey

Age creeps upon us all in various ways. Often it is our mind that is affected, in that names, once stamped indelibly into our memory, begin to fail us. Other more sinister forms of attack are often encountered. Sore knees and stiffness of joints that once fulfilled their function without thought, become a painful protest, pleading for attention within the body they serve.

As the years pass by, disturbing news assails us like cold mists. An email from an old pal who left a career with the Royal Marines to become a pilot with Air Canada informs me that he’d like to get together as he has six months to live, maximum, due to brain cancer.

We’re getting together in Abbotsford, his home, next week.

Celebrations of Life become a part of your existence.

Friends of long standing having entered that dimension that only exists in the minds of believers in their differing beliefs; Can some be wrong, are others correct or is it merely a dream to allow us to enter the realm of nothing?

Many of us are victims of hideous and painful existences during which our tormented bodies and minds are kept alive, by mechanical means and wellmeaning professionals, when we long for the dark road of death.

I have just written that death is the end. Thankfully, I don’t believe that, as scientific evidence more and more seems to point the way that religions have proffered: that death is merely a doorway to a brighter, happier and more profound existence during which you can examine your former life with advanced souls and decide where your next road will lead.

The Spiritualists and many Eastern religions believe in reincarnation. The reason for this is simple. How, they ask, can you be judged by one lifetime during which you may be born of any faith, intelligent or stupid, any racial colour, in any part of the world and into any  www.dialogue2.ca

Mike Harvey, Age Creeps Upon Us All, contd.

social milieu existing at that juncture.

If, as these faiths avow, we are spirits encased in a physical body to learn and grow in love and kindness to others, how can one brief lifetime fulfill all the lessons which must be learned to become a part of the Creator? Even the western religions avow that we are a part of God and that He is our father and we return to him at the time of our death for judgement.

Is there a Creative Force, something beyond our comprehension that established the hundreds of billions of planets that populate the unfathomable space in which it all inhabits? We can only surmise; and on a downto-earth level science marvels at the complexities of everything that is within or without us. Who or what established the building blocks of which everything is

composed? How did intelligence enter both animal and plant life?

What established the bonds of love felt by humans and our animal brethren for one another and between species? Or, as a true atheist would say, “One day we may discover why, as science progresses.” All I can say that the non-believers in a creative force are braver than I am, for I haven’t the courage to dismiss it all as just something that happened.

Although I cannot prove the fact, I do believe that there is a great Creator that we are all part of. And I believe that the force enfolds the love for us that we lavish on other living souls which includes much of life itself.

Mike Harvey, Langley BC 

Poetry & Prose from Charles Matchett Charles Matchett, Owen Sound, Ontario

I have been writing poems since I was 9 years old. I am also a member of the Grey/Bruce writers club in Owen sound ,ON. My published book is called Mind Expressions; it was published in 2000.

You can be what ever you want my friend It all depends on you So keep a positive attitude And faith will see you thru If you search for happiness Which you cannot seem to find Then, lend a hand to your fellow man It’s all a state of mind

Charles Matchett

Share yourself with others Seek goodness in all things Then you will reap a just reward Of joy that giving brings

Drink not from the cup of bitterness Don’t cheat, nor speak a lie Think not an evil thought my friend For time is passing by

Be sensitive to your reactions And the reactions of others too Have faith in your fellow man, my friend And they will have faith in you

You are what you think my friend What you are perceived to be Analyze yourself my friend Do you like what you see?

Lead others by example Keep a smile in your voice And you will truly be at peace But, it’s you must make the choice.

Advice To A Friend

How My Life was Ruined by The Royal Canadian Navy My name is Charles Ferquet Matchett. On November the 8th 1961, I joined the Royal Canadian Navy.

On completion of basic training I was transferred to a Tribal class Destroyer named HMCS HURON. In September 1962 the HURON on which I served, was deployed to serve in the Cuban Blockade, www.dialogue2.ca

patrolling a grid of the Atlantic – 11 miles off Cuba.

Life aboard HMCS HURON was harsh – with new recruits treated worse than slaves. A hurricane struck while we were deployed and many onboard got seasick; I was one of them.

CONTINUES NEXT PAGE  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 49

Charles Matchett, How My Life Was Ruined by the Royal Canadian Navy, contd.

Incident #1

I was on my hands and knees, in the Heads, spewing into a toilet, when a large leading seaman Named G. Gaton kicked me in the stomach, and screamed, “Get up out of there!” – causing me severe pain, and shortly after I started spitting up blood with my vomit.

I was told it was not in my best interest to charge LS G. Gayton with an offence as The Atlantic Ocean is a big place and chances of finding someone that went overboard was slight.

We were at sea for 21 days during the blockade and this happened in the first week of the deployment. I could not hold food in my stomach, lost weight and suffered continuously during my stay on board before we returned to Halifax.

On return to Halifax I was taken to RCN HOSPITAL for treatment, where I was told that the lining of my stomach was torn. And that I should have received treatment sooner. I was hospitalized for 2.5 weeks, on intravenous, before I was able to tolerate liquids and later soft foods.

It was shortly after that I developed stomach ulcers that have plagued me for the rest of my life. Everything traces back to this incident on board HMCS HURON during the blockade.

Incident #2

This continued until 1969 at which time I was operated on at RCN Hospital in Halifax where a vagotomy duodectomy, and pyloroplasty plus my appendix was also removed which I was not aware would happen and did not give permission for. I was told the operation would alleviate the problems I was having.

The night after the operation I rang the help buzzer repeatedly and, after no response and not wanting to urinate in my bed, I attempted to go to the washroom by myself. On getting off the high bed, I fell forward and collided with the corner of the night table at which time the stitches in that area opened and my intestines came falling out which I caught in my hands and attempted to push back inside.

I rang the help buzzer again but no one showed, I made my way to the wash room, relieved myself and stopped by the nurses station. Not finding anyone around I returned to my bed. I had to lie on my back in order to keep my intestines inside.

The next morning the surgeon, making rounds, 50 dialogue

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followed by a group of students appeared by my bed.

Upon explaining the operation to the students, He threw back the blankets that covered me and was shocked to see intestines protruding thru the opening.

He asked how this happened.

I told him that no help was available to me at the time it happened, around 1:30 a.m., able seaman Kitchen In the bed next to mine confirmed my story to the surgeon. I was taken back to the operating room and repairs were done.

This should not have happened as my alarm calls should have been answered or at least someone should make rounds and check on post-operative patents, which did not happen.

However, the operation did not cure the problem and in fact, I feel it was an unnecessary act and that I was used as a teaching tool to teach students. The stomach problems continued and I was steadily on medications, Incident #3

In 1972 I was transferred to CFB KINGSTON, Ontario for a trade course. On My second day there I was found unconscious and taken to the military Hospital.

I was found to have perforated ulcers. I was unconscious for two days; upon awaking I found myself hooked up to blood supply, intravenous, a drainage tube in my bowel cavity thru my side, and my stomach thru my nose also I had had a catheter inserted to my bladder. I was hospitalized for 2 weeks.

Incident #4

In 1963, while serving board HMCS ASSINIBOINE and doing my duty rounds at 12:00 a.m., I stepped into the hatch leading to the mess deck, the ladder had been removed in the first and second decks, causing me to fall and land across a hatch cover on the third deck level; I was unable to move after my fall. I was taken to RCN hospital in Halifax, where the doctor that examined me found that I had a spinal injury with no feeling below the damaged area and no feeling in my legs.

He looked me in the face and said, “I hate to tell you this, son, but you will never walk again.” I was totally angered and tried to get off the gurney that I was on.

My feet were on the floor but I could not stand and was hanging on to the side of the gurney when the doctor came back in. He said, “You should not try to move, you could hurt yourself more.”

I had an extended stay in hospital and one day a  www.dialogue2.ca

Charles Matchett, How My Life Was Ruined by the Royal Canadian Navy, contd.

doctor came from Montreal and he snapped my neck like a chiropractor. I immediately felt a charge run up my back and it seemed as if someone hit me on the back of the head, as I went unconscious.

Upon regaining consciousness, I was in a great deal of pain and could still not move my legs. I was assigned to a wheel chair to get around. One day I was moving my legs with my hands in order to exercise them and a doctor asked me, “Why are you doing that? You are just wasting your time… you will not be using those legs again.”

I was determined to get feeling back to my legs and to control them. During Physical therapy, a nurse, upon seeing my eyes tearing, said to me. You don’t have to try so hard.” I replied, “Yes I do.” Eventually I was able to stand unaided. Then I had to learn to walk again, it was a lot of trial and error and a lot of pain. If I had been complacent and listened to the medical professionals, I would never have walked again.

I still have problems with my back and my legs sometimes but I can walk!

I was told that I should apply for medical release and the base commander said she agreed but that things would go faster if I were to get a regular release and apply for a pension through the Dept. of Veterans affairs.

I applied and was released from service December 8th 1974. On the two occasions that I have applied for a pension, I have been turned down.

Veterans affairs put the first incident down as Recurrent Duodenal Ulcers (which I say stemmed from the kick to my stomach wile serving aboard HMCS HURON).

Veterans Affairs put the back injury as Lumbar Disc Disease (which I believe was caused by my back injury on board HMCS ASSINIBOINE).

My second application for medical pension was in 1997 with Toronto District Office, 25 ST. Clair Ave., E., Suite903, Toronto, Ontario.

They stated I was not pensionable under subsection 21 (2) of the Pension Act, Regular Force Service.

Charles Ferquet Matchett, Owen Sound ON

A Desperate Plea For Help Ms. Yolanda East – whose story follows – has been a Dialogue subscriber and supporter (through donations & gift subscriptions) since 1989. Her own subscription began as a Gift from Harry E. Bateman. We had the pleasure of meeting her, when she visited our office (with Ken Tellis of Mississauga) when Dialogue was still located in Quebec. In those days, Yolanda was a frequent and eloquent contributor to the magazine. In the face of the rising linguistic nationalism in Quebec, she was very supportive of the Quebec English community’s right to survive and thrive. She was ostracized from her family for adopting English as a language. (Janet)

My Story…

Yolanda East, Ste. Agathe-des-Monts QC

April 27, 2014. I am a 74-year-old woman living alone in an isolated area, a 12-minute drive from the nearest town.

My credit rating had always been excellent and I had paid cash for my property. I live very modestly, never smoke, don’t drink, and never lived with a man after my abusive husband, from England, where we lived with his family and where I had a son who died in a drowning accident; he was a student of Marine Biolwww.dialogue2.ca

ogy at Guelph University I studied socio-anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa for a while.

I was born and raised in Quebec (to be a nun at 16, in Baie St. Paul). I left the Catholic Church and have lived in English ever since, but was ostracized by my family; I am an atheist.

A few years ago, my pension cheque was sent to the wrong bank by mistake; I still don’t know why – I had had the account at the same bank for 15 years.

Since my bills are all paid automatically through the bank, there were no funds to cover them. I had never had an NSF cheque in my life! All the cheques were returned before I was made aware of the situation – and I was broke. The bank charges $42.50 for an NSF cheque, and the recipient $30; so that a cheque for $25 is increased by almost $75. Multiply that – and there is no way to get out of it. The government finally refunded me $115, although the whole amount was over $600 in extra fees.

Every month it’s getting worse, because I can never  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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Yolanda’s Story, contd.

catch up. The septic tank pump failed (it was supposed to be new & under warranty, but the company went bankrupt); it cost me $1200 (my whole pension cheque) to fix it; the workers drove me to the bank and threatened me! I still don’t have drinking water – and have to go to a creek!

Last week my temporary winter shelter fell on my car (which is still be repaired) – fortunately the Insurance is paying.

I spent 12 days in Hospital – and the man who was supposed to be responsible for my house didn’t show up; my cat died of hunger and thirst (toilet seat closed) and my plants died.

The result of all that is that I can’t afford the telephone, which has been disconnected. I live in a hostile neighbourhood and I’m running out of gas. I’m afraid of dying all alone, incapable for asking for help, without a phone.

Now my driver’s licence has to be paid before the end of the month ($250) or I won’t be able to go anywhere. For the first time in my life I had a credit card and I used to pay all of it every month. But I had to use it to survive and maxed it out at over $3000. The Bank refused me a $7,000 loan on my house and now I’m running out of options. (I understand why there is so much suicide among the elderly; why don’t they just shoot us and get rid of the problem!)

The youth cult makes getting old the absolute crime!!

As a last resort, I went to the local Senior Centre a few days ago, in Ste. Agathe. Monsieur Gaudrault told me that Les Chevaliers de Colomb (Knights of Columbus) would come to my house to help and he gave me a phone number to call; it’s useless, because they can’t call me back: I have no phone! – and nobody has showed up so far.

The local soup kitchen told me that I wasn’t eligible because I’m over 65.

My house is a mess; I don’t have the strength to clean it up. I really need help, but nobody seems to care.

During my life, I have written seven books: on Religion, Language, Feminism, Politics, etc. – in French and in English; but I can’t find publishers because I’m computer illiterate!!

Over the years (I’ve been here for over 25 years), I had made some friends (all English), who helped me 52 dialogue

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occasionally – and I always paid back; but all of them (four) have died in the last year. I am now all alone in a desperate situation and so lonely.

Helping people and animals in distress was something I always enjoyed doing. I gave free English lessons (sometimes for not even a thank you after six months!) I could still do so much to help others, if I could survive this nightmare.

Blaming the victim is the accepted policy everywhere.

So far this year, I’m $2000 late in heating fuel. Since I can’t pay my house taxes, I will lose my house and I won’t be able to drive without my licence. Winter snow clearing was $400; insurance payments on car and house can’t be met; and my freezer is empty. Wearing 20-year-old clothes doesn’t bother me and I never shop except for food. What else am I supposed to do?

Will I end up in the street? Or in one of those awful Seniors’ Homes? I realize that I’ve reached the end of the road.

I could have done so much in the next 20 years. My book on the alternatives to the Catholic Church could have helped so many disoriented people. Hopefully my book will be published posthumously. My expectations of a response to my desperate plea is practically nil. I’ve run out of options. Greed wins out.

It would have been so easy to pull me out of that quagmire. But no one cares! Compassion, empathy, generosity, altruism are all replaced by the power of money and possessions. We are only consumers!

Very few recipients* of this will bother to read my plea for help; it will probably end up in the shredder or waste basket.

After 30 years or more of trying, I have to give up. I could have done a lot to help others.

Sincerely, Yolanda East 5620 Chemin Fleurant Ste. Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec J8C 0P1

* Letter was sent to The Gazette, La Presse, The Fifth Estate, W5, Journal de Montréal, Ottawa Citizen, Main Street, Ste. Agathe Seniors, Chevaliers de Columb, The Réseau FADOQ (Quebec’s largest seniors’ organization), Ottawa Sun, Hotel de Ville (Ste. Agathe), CJAD, CTV, CBC, Global, Université de Montreal, Concordia University; and to Dialogue. 

"Those who understand see themselves in all, and all, in themselves."

– Bhagavad-Gita  www.dialogue2.ca

Personocratia’s Path

The New Age Conspiracy

Human beings behave like fish swimming in a double fishbowl of lies. They believe that the first fishbowl, the concrete world of matter, has been fully explored – minerals, plants, animals, etc. With this partial knowledge, they invented new technologies that allow them to live longer and comfortably. Yet, physical and biological laws only work some of the time.

Irregularities are quickly classified as miracles or freak coincidences. We are too blind or too afraid to admit that these socalled laws are not set in stone. They simply represent habitual movements of matter and they can be altered. This concept is so revolutionary that we would rather lie to ourselves than accept the obvious. Therefore, we live in a world of lies, the first fishbowl, which corresponds to a mere 0.1% of reality, according to some quantum physicists.

The Second Fishbowl As for the second fishbowl, the remaining 99.9%, it represents the subtle worlds that constantly influence the material world. These worlds are numerous – etheric, astral/vital, emotional, mental, causal, etc. We explore these on a daily basis when we sleep, daydream, meditate, or use recreational drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and psychotropic medication. Some people study their subtle laws in religious, sacred and magic texts.

Others use this knowledge to control the first fishbowl through magic spells, ceremonies, rituals, and sacrifices. They call powerful forces and entities, some “good” and others “bad” – gods, angels, aliens, djinns, demons, asuras – and try to force these to fulfil their wishes. Again, the results are mitigated and the laws remain inconsistent.

The subtle worlds are as deceitful as the material world – a double fishbowl of lies.

On earth, the control of the first fishbowl has been organised by the global elite for thousands of years. Generation after generation, blue-blood families have followed a long-term agenda of manipulation and deceit in order to reach the total temporal and spiritual domination of humanity, which they call the New World Order (NWO). This temporal (first fishbowl) control can only be achieved through spiritual (second fishbowl) means. This is why the global elite is so deeply involved in satanic rituals. This is also why they totally control the ROCSSSS: religions, orders, cults, secret societies, science, spirituality.

The New Age of Aquarius The entities of the subtle worlds live a very long time, because their own space-time is very different from ours. When their « food » becomes scarce, the “gods” who feast on human vital and mental energies alter their harvesting strategies. Their words become adapted to humanity’s prevalent level of consciousness. Nowadays, many sacred calendars – written or modified by the elite and interpreted by elite-paid “experts” – indicate that we are entering a new era: the Age of Aquarius.

In reality, this “New Age” is simply a return to pre-deluvian cabbalistic magic for the purpose of keeping the old world under the domination of the same entities and their big boss, the god of illusion. The latter is often called Satan (adversary) – or Lucifer (bearer of “light”). So-called sacred texts announce huge cosmic upheavals that will destroy the planet and present-day corrupt humanity. A new “golden” age will follow for those who can survive the cataclysms and evolve into the next species. However, as always in the fishbowl of illusion, the opposite is true. The changes are due to a critical mass of human beings whose souls and bodies are ready. They are bringing about the complete transformation of humanity, the same way fish stuck in their drying ponds held inside their bodies the next evolutionary step – amphibians.

Since we are the change and the god of illusion refuses to lose its food source, a gigantic spiritual and social engineering project has been put in place to keep us dumbed down and submissive. Guided by their satanic master, the elite has diligently followed the plan, step by step: 1. Scientific atheism is put in place in order for the masses to stop believing in the subtle worlds.

2. Aliens and demons give advanced technological information to help the elite put in place the next steps of their master plan.

3. Using this technology, the elite organises the pollution, plundering and destruction of the planet, and the mind control of the masses.

4. The elite-owned media excite our covetousness using mind-numbing propaganda. Its banks lend us the money needed to yield to the temptations produced by their multinationals.

5. The elite creates the environmental movement, which presents our poor earth as the victim of cruel, egocentric human beings.

6. The spiritual elite (Satan-worshipping Jesuits) organises New Age spirituality, the veneration of aliens and ascended masters (demons) channelled by the “chosen” (possessed).

7. The elite’s secret technology (HAARP, chemtrails, vaccines) is used to increase earth changes and human control.

It stimulates specific thoughts, emotions, desires, actions, and illnesses.

8. Elite and aliens create human-alien hybrids (hubrids) with impressive occult powers.

9. Presented as the culprit, the human ego needs to be technologically controlled by a collective mind.

10. Eugenics (killing the rebellious) and transhumanism (improving the submissive) insure the total control of humanity  by the god of illusion and his minions. www.dialogue2.ca

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New Age = Satanism + Technology According to author Arthur C. Clark, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Most so-called spiritual manifestation can be produced technologically. For the past decades, the elite gained access to technological information from aliens and demons. According to some whistleblowers, they are 10,000 years in advance of mainstream science and can easily simulate supernatural events such as miraculous healings, channelling, apparitions, telepathy, telekinesis, and so on.

Many religions warn us profusely against such miracles as being the “work of the devil”, but New Age spirituality ignores their advice and overtly promotes occult powers and magic.

The New Age program was carefully conceived and put in place by the elite, guided by its satanic master. Gradually, all religions were infiltrated and its leaders corrupted. It was important that religions appear old-fashioned and that their believers stop trusting the old lies, so that new, better-adapted New-Age lies become the new norm, promoted by thousands of good salesmen. The UN is deeply involved in this propaganda, as evidenced by this statement from Robert Muller, UN Assistant Secretary-General for 40 years: “Peace will be impossible without the taming of fundamentalism through a united religion that professes faithfulness only to the global spirituality and to the health of this planet.”

From Atheism to ET-ism For the elite, spiritual disinformation has become a well-honed specialty. Here is the basic recipe: 1. Spread illusory religious dogmas that deform the messages coming from the true spiritual worlds (superconscient). This allows the god of illusion and his servants to strengthen his power and continue feeding on human vital and mental energies.

Impose these dogmas through fear (sin, hell, confession) and force (religious wars, inquisition, hierarchical religious institutions). Keep adapting the dogmas to humanity’s level of consciousness.

2. When human consciousness rises exponentially, deny the existence of subtle worlds by promoting Darwinism and materialistic atheism. Official experts must declare impossible and ridiculous any notion of invisible gods, angels, demons, elementals, and other such entities.

3. Introduce false spiritual dogmas that help connect only to the lower subtle worlds (conscient & subconscient). Present all invisible entities as beneficial and evolved. Encourage magic (e.g. law of attraction) so that the mind serves human desires and spirituality remains materialistic and superficial.

4. Through satanic rituals, open subtle doors (stargates) to facilitate the interaction between humanity and vital entities. (This was achieved by Albert Pyke, Alister Crowley, Jack Parson, Ron Hubbard, and many more.)

6. Impoverish and falsify the spiritual vocabulary by merging concepts. For example, atheism (belief in no god) becomes a synonym of secularism (separation of church & state). Satanism, paganism and spirituality become indiscernible. All subtle worlds are combined into Jung’s “collective unconscious”.

7. Create the myth of aliens from other galaxies who are more advanced than us technologically, mentally, and spiritually, as the publicity included here suggests. In secret labs, build flying saucers and false aliens (cloned GMOs) to organise a false invasion of nasty aliens and/or the arrival of nice humanity-saving aliens.

8. Hybridise & microchip millions of people to make them easily “possessable” by demonic entities. Such hubrids can spread Ad for the 2014 Montreal UFO Congress deceitful propaganda via books, congresses, interviews, etc.

(Notice the gradual evolution suggested.)

9. Popularise recreational drugs, channelling, possession (e.g. walk-ins) and occult powers. Drugs give an easier access to low subtle worlds and greatly facilitate a gradual possession by vital entities.

This recipe allowed humanity to go from the age of religions to atheism, then ET-ism. Even the Vatican agrees: “It is entirely credible that in the enormous distance between angels and humans, there could be found some middle stage – that is, beings with a body like ours but more elevated spiritually.” More obvious is Pope Francis’ most recent declaration (April 2014): "Dear brothers, I wanted to tell all of you that we are not alone in the universe. Science has already made so much progress that, most likely, we will soon know our new brothers and sisters, with whom we will exchange a sign of peace. On that day, there will be wonder and we will remember that God is one and watches over us all."

No, Thanks!

With such a statement from the pope, we might think that the elite’s satanic agenda is approaching fruition. We feel totally powerless when confronted with such a well-established long-term plan. Will it succeed? Despite the evidence, something inside tells me NO. I cannot accept that humanity faced so much suffering for millions of years just to go back to being petty slaves controlled by a collective mind – however benevolent it might pretend to be.

Something much greater hides inside me, screaming to be expressed. My sovereign soul wants to take charge of my body and express her magnificent truth. This is the real purpose of my being here at this moment. So, this is the path I choose. YES, I will give myself totally to this marvellous divine agenda. However, I realize that I need to walk my talk. I’m ready to change my life, turn my old habits upside down, let go of all attachments, in order to make this world more than just a better place, but truly heaven-on-earth. ~ Personocratia* Videos: www.dianedares.com Information: www.personocratia.com * The person who knows that she is the Supreme Creatrix incarnated in a body and who acts as such in her daily life.

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

www.dialogue.ca

“Observations from Lithuania”

'A Sense of Nonsense'

by KR Slade

*****

Ken Slade

In the United Kingdom, ‘The National Union of Teachers’ has the acknowledged acronym: ‘NUT’.

***** “When I think back On all the crap I learned in high school It’s a wonder I can think at all And though my lack of education Hasn’t hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall” Paul Simon, ‘Kodachrome’, 1973 *****

Old Russian saying: “The less you know, the better you sleep.” *****

An old Lithuanian saying: “Yesterday was better than today, but today is better than tomorrow, even when something good may happen” ***** Lenin once remarked: "It is true that liberty is precious -- so precious that it must be rationed." *****

Anecdote of Soviet promises: “soon you will be able to order food by the telephone … but it will arrive by the television.” *****

Anecdote of Democracy: A government-organized lottery game: “a tax on two classes of people who need a tax the least -- the poor and the stupid.” *****

Old Lithuanian saying: “When Roman Catholic and Orthodox Easter and Jewish Passover coincide, it is always bad weather. It is because that they each should have their own day.” ***** The English word for a desktop ‘stapler’ is commonly referred to in Lithuanian as a ‘crocodile’ ! ***** www.dialogue2.ca

In Lithuanian food stores/shops, certain products are always found grouped-together: -- flour, salt, sugar, baking soda -- paper towels and toilet paper; but, facial tissues are somewhere else, maybe near the toothpaste, or near the femininehygiene products -- near the check-out counter: cigarette lighters, condoms, batteries, chewing gum, and small candy -- bags of popped pop-corn are near the pretzels, not near the potato-chips; whole-popcorn (i.e., un-popped) is always near the nuts ***** Said the Vilnius University student at the ‘Institute of International Relations and Political Science’, as he was bringing flowers and candy to his professor, on the day before final examinations, “It is not a bribe. It is merely a small gift to ensure future good relations.” *****

Not-so-old Russian joke: Little boy: “Tell me a story.”

Father: Once upon a time, a man with the best and biggest personal computer purchased all the software programs he wanted, and …

Little boy: “He paid money for software ?”

Father: “Hey, you wanted a story … it’s a story.”

Little boy: “I want a real story.” ***** My roommate, Marius-the-computer-science-whiz-kid, had completed his first semester at the Vilnius University Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics. One Spring day, he announced, “I have completed my personal project. Here is DVD with the best commercial program for computer security and anti-virus, which costs 99 litas per year after expiration of its 30-day free trial. I have ‘cracked’ the program’s internal billing system; now, it will be good for more than 30-days, at no cost.”

“Oh, thanks. So, I will never have to pay for it, and always get the daily updates free?”

“Yes, not to pay; and yes, to get all updates free. But, no, not forever; I only managed to extend the 30-day free trial for some additional days.”

“Extended for how many additional days ?”

“For 16,715,542 additional days.”

“That’s for 50,000 years ?!?”

“No, for 16,715,542 days is actually only for 45,764.6598220397 years.”  VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

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KR Slade, A Sense of Nonsense, contd.

Said the university administrator, at the end of Spring, “Soon the students will be gone for the summer. Then, we will be able to get some work done. The work at the university goes so much better without the students.” *****

Asking the waitress: “Why, in the last two weeks, in all four of your restaurants, every day, regardless of the time: you have only 50% of your menu available ?”

“Too-many people come to our restaurants.”

“Would the restaurant work better without all of these customers?”

“Well, then, there would never be problems.” ***** In the former Soviet Union, a certain day in February was celebrated as ‘Soviet Army Day’. All of the men in an office, in a factory, and in shops, received a red carnation to wear. Men wore their old military-uniforms, which entitled them to kiss any woman and to get drunk. And, no woman would slap him, or call him a drunken bastard. *****

“Maybe we should change our plan to meet today, to 7 pm from 6 pm. After work today, I have to get my car from the repair shop.”

“Oh, is the repair shop far away ?”

“No, it is across the street from my office. But, after it is repaired, it may not work.” ***** A childhood friend wrote that our old adolescent schooldays’ macabre-humour, of now 50+ years ago, has been continued verbatim by the present USA generation. She had overheard her grandson telling our same old historyclass joke, “So, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, what did you think of the play?” ***** One ‘Baby Boom’ special educational-experience of (U.S.) childhood has been lost to changing times. In grammar school, we had the Cold War ‘duck-and-cover’ monthly exercise-drills. This would protect us in the event of nuclear attack. The emergency horn blasted in every classroom; in an orderly manner, all students quietly filed into the central corridor, and sat on the floor with their backs against the wall. Then the teacher would say, “Duck and cover”, which was followed by the more-explicit instructions: “bend your knees, put your hands behind your head, and put your head between your knees. And be silent.”

In kindergarten and first-grade, there was always one kid in every class that wet himself at some time after the blast of the emergency horn, and who began crying by the time of having an optimum view with his head between his knees.

By the end of third grade, kids were wondering why the 56 dialogue

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teachers did not duck-and-cover, and what we kids would do when all the teachers were dead. By the end of sixth grade, every kid was totally bored, having been disappointed for seven years that there was never any great explosion, no huge fireball, and absolutely nothing destroyed. In fact, the only entertaining and positive aspect of this exercise was missing 15 minutes of normal classes.

At the beginning of seventh grade, there was one change; beside the fact that we were in a much-larger school, with many-more students, and we were all ‘coming of age’ -- including being much-more easily bored, and much-less willing to suffer boredom without complaining. It became the time when some rebellion would be in order. So, at the first drill of our junior-high years, we knew well the routine: we filed into the corridor, sat down on the floor, and listened to 15 teachers in the long corridor all announcing, almost in unison, “Duck-and-cover; bend your knees, put your hands behind your head, and put your head between your knees. And be silent.” That’s when some kid said, “And kiss your ass goodbye”.

I think that it was my five-word addendum that got me elected class-president the next day. After that, there was never another drill in which the teachers’ duck-and-cover speech was not ended by all the students speaking ‘the final instruction’. All of the teachers were always greatly annoyed that the students were breaking the Rules: to ‘Die in Absolute Silence’, as well as ‘Displaying Ultimate Disloyalty of Laughing During Atomic Disaster’. Moreover, with the ever-continuing free publicity of the monthly ‘duck-andcover’ exercises, I was elected School President; twice. ***** To me, living 13 years in Quebec (city; Canada), learning of the legendary sentiment of ‘the harsh Lithuanian winter’ -with much-snow-and-very-cold -- did not make a great impression. After coming to Lithuania, I developed a new realization. Winters in Canada are colder than in Lithuania; however, winter in Lithuania is colder inside of buildings. (e.g., In winter, Vilnius University library does supply blankets in all of their reading rooms.) Moreover, the fact is that in Canada there is more snow than in Lithuania. However, in Canada municipal governments use extensive equipment and manpower to remove the snow.

In Lithuania, God removes the snow, usually by Easter. ***** Postscript: “Any resemblance of anything contained herein to any person, place, event, or thing is purely coincidental, and/or entirely imagined -- by the writer and/or the reader. This writing only fiction; therefore, nothing that is written here should be construed as true . . . including of course, this statement.”

- Ken Slade, Vilnius (Lithuania) All Rights Reserved: 2014: Ken-Russell Slade, B.S., M.Ed., M.R.E., J.D E-mail: kenmunications@gmail.com 

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More Laughter & ‘Lightenment Thanks to John McCullough for these…

Kids…

An acquaintance of mine who is a physician told this story about her then 4-year-old daughter.

On the way to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it.

"Be still, my heart," thought my friend, "my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!"

Then the child spoke into the instrument: "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?"

-------------------------A certain little girl, when asked her name, would reply, "I'm Mr. Sugarbrown's daughter."

Her mother told her this was wrong, she must say, "I'm Jane Sugarbrown."

The Vicar spoke to her in Sunday School, and said, "Aren't you Mr. Sugarbrown's daughter?"

She replied, "I thought I was, but Mother says I'm not."

-------------------------A little girl asked her mother, "Can I go outside and play with the boys?"

Her mother replied, "No, you can't play with the boys, they're too rough."

The little girl thought about it for a few moments and asked, "If I can find a smooth one, can I play with him?"

--------------------------

Thoughts about Aging

1. I've gotten that dreaded “furniture” disease.

That's when your chest is falling into your drawers!

2. Application & admittance forms always ask, ‘Who is to be notified in case of an emergency?’

I think you should answer, 'A Good Doctor'!

3. I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older.

Then, it dawned on me. They were cramming for their finals.

4. As for me, I'm just hoping God grades on the curve.

5. The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

6. Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are XL. www.dialogue2.ca

A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"

One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping." --------------------------

Bloody Passwords!

Please Enter Your Password.

~ "cabbage" Sorry, the Password must be more than 8 characters.

~ "boiled cabbage" Sorry, the Password must contain 1 numerical character.

~ "1 boiled cabbage" Sorry, the Password cannot have blank spaces.

~ "50bloodyboiledcabbages" Sorry, the Password must contain at least one upper case character.

~ "50BLOODYboiledcabbages" Sorry, the Password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively.

~ "50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUp YourAss,IfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessnow" Sorry, the Password cannot contain punctuation.

~ "ReallyPissedOff50BloodyBoiledCabbages ShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontGiveMeAccessnow" Sorry, that Password is already in use.  7. Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

8. Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me, I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

9. One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young. Ah, being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.  ***

"Laugh as much as possible, always laugh. It's the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one's fellow human beings." - Maya Angelou “You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing!!” VOL. 27 NO. 4, SUMMER 2014

dialogue 57

Contributors in Andersen, Erik, BC……….. 11 Anglo Society of NB………. 44 Arney, Jeremy, BC……….... 10 Backhaus, Karl, ON……….. 31 Barlow, Maude, COC….….. 08 BrasscheckTV (link) US…....43-44 Cartulucci, Tony (quote/link)… 18 CBC (quotes/links)……..14,41,59 CDSAPI, Inge Hanle, BC…. 20 Cdns. for Lang. Fairness….. 44 CommonSenseCanadian…. 17 Council of Canadians…..…. 08 Darwin, Charles (about)….26,60 East, Yolanda, QC………51-52 Emoto, Masaru (quote, link)….20 Etkin, Jack, BC.…………..... 05 Feffer, John, FPIP, US…..… 12 Foster, David, ON…………. 26 Free Grassy Narrows, ON… 09 Gaudet, Marie, AB…………. 40 Ghis and Mado, QC……….. 53 Global Research.…..…4,18,,22 Goertzen, Ed, ON…………. 06

dialogue - Vol. 27 No. 4

Goldberg, Kim, BC…………. 07 GoodNewsNetwork (US)….. 30 Graeber, David (quote/link) 11,12 Graham, Duncan, BC……… 23 Hannah, Dorothy, QC……... 45 Harrison, D.A., BC……….… 09 Harvey, Mike, BC...…...…46-49 Hume, Mark (G&M quote)….. 17 Israel, Lou, ON………….…. 43 Keefer, Michael (CRG)…….. 05 Kellington, Ken, AB…….… 05 Knauf, Colin, BC…………35-37 Lawrence, Sharon, BC……. 16 Lonsdale, Derrick, US….….. 33 Loye, David (quotes/links) 26,60 Lyman, Eva, BC…………… 05 Matchett, Charles, ON..…45-51 Mathews, Robin, BC………. 14 McCaslin, Susan, BC……28,29 McConnell, Kim, ON………. 44 McCullough, J., ON (from) 57,59 McDowall, S., BC………….. 18 Menzies, Heather, BC (quote) 32

Mercola.com (quote/link) US 31,34 Moore, Richard (from)…….. 59 National Farmers Union….. 18 Neilly, Michael, ON…….…. 13 Ó Sullibhain, Cainnech….. 39 Palmer, Ken, AB…………. 41 Parker, Don, ON…………. 02 Parramore, L.S.(Alternet)…. 12 Personocratia, QC…..…53-54 Petrik, Denny, BC…………. 59 Piketty, Thomas (about)…… 12 Porter, J. S., ON…………… 38 Presser, Richard (link)…….. 59 PressTV (quote/link)……….. 18 Ranns, John, BC………….. 07 ReaderSupportNews.org.... 17 Roberts, Paul Craig (link)…. 18 Ross, June (from)…………. 17 Saltzman, Aaron (CBC link) 59 Scott, Peter Dale (quotes) 27,60 Scudder, Ray, BC…………. 22 Short, Richard Wm, ON….. 39 Shadbolt, John, ON…….…. 19

“Thank you to everyone for making this another inspiring issue!”

Please Subscribe to dialogue!

Read, write, have your say… in Canada’s unique, national volunteerproduced magazine, written by its readers.

Slade, Ken, Lithuania…..55-56 Spencer, Herb, BC……….. 19 Tellis, Kenneth, ON………. 39 TheSparc.net……………… 18 UN News Centre (quote/link) 18 Vancourt, Randy, ON……. 42 Vineyard of the Saker…….. 24 Winter, Paul, ON………….. 59 Woollam, Bill, BC…………4,21 Yang, Jo-Shing (CRG)….… 22

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