Dialogue,vol 27,no 1digital edition2

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VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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JULY-AUG 2012 VOL. 26 NO.1

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A word from the publisher and editor…

dialogue is...

Dear Reader, …an independent, volunteerWelcome to the first issue of our twentyproduced, not-for-profit Canadian seventh year ~ and our first – the Autumn magazine, written and supported by its readers - empowering their 2013 edition – in our new Quarterly format. voices and the sharing of ideas.

The word “Awakening” – on the cover – may have Now in its 27th year, dialogue various connotations for you, depending on your provides a forum for the philosophical and metaphysical beliefs; likewise for “Activism” and exchange of ideas and an “Art” – your personal priorities and preferences for these will be unique antidote to political correctness.

We encourage readers to share to you, as your life experiences unfold. In this issue, these words have with others the ideas and insights taken on a theme inspired by John Porter’s profile of Canadian poet gleaned from these pages.

Susan McCaslin (and Susan’s story), pp.9-12. The Power of Poetry to If this is your first issue, please save a forest became a magnet for stories about other creative endeavlet us know what you think of it. ours that are nurturing wisdom in our relationship with nature and the If you would like to share your courage to take a stand for what we cherish. [See “It’s the poets…” p.59] ideas and become a writer in You will read many inspiring, challenging and unsettling articles, dialogue magazine reflecting Art, Activism and Awakening at this time of flux.

Consider this your personal Actually, it was the evolving theme of this edition that suggested the “A” invitation to participate! imagery, and hence the idea of giving ourselves a playful challenge for We also need your support as a the next six or so years: to come up with a cover theme for each edition, subscriber, to help us continue (See P. 58 for details) while working our way through the alphabet. (It works for mystery writer We receive NO government funding Sue Grafton ~ she started in 1982 and in 2013 has reached the letter W!) and no advertising revenue.

It may sound a bit ‘gimmicky’ – but our (Latin) alphabet is the foundaWe rely totally on the generous tion of the language(s) we use to communicate and this little device, we support of our readers & subscribers. dialogue was founded in 1987 hope, will help stimulate our creativity! We will be asking, in each issue, and is now published quarterly. for your suggestions for the “alphabetic” theme for the next issue…

Maurice J. King, Volunteer Publisher So let us know when you get inspired with ‘B’ words or images for Janet K. Hicks, Volunteer Editor the “Winter” edition (deadline Nov. 1st) ~ and we’ll see what wild and Date of Current Issue: Aug. 19, ‘13 wonderful cover themes & designs we can come up with together!

Annual subscription: $20.00 This issue of dialogue was made possible by the participation and sup[including GST, # 89355-1739] Canada Post Agreement No. 40069647 port of its readers and friends. The magazine is an independent, volunRegistration No. 08915 teer-produced, not-for-profit publication that relies entirely on the subISSN: 1184-7042 scriptions and donations of its readers to survive. If you are in a posiLegal Deposit: National Library of Canada (409731) tion to help at this time, your donation is much needed to keep the print magazine going. [The lower subscription rate of $20 means we now rely, The views expressed in this publication are those more than ever, on donations to meet our fixed expenses.] Without your of their individual authors. support and your voices, there would be no dialogue!

Reprints of published articles are Thank you for your (much needed!) help in keeping us in print!

Maurice,

volunteer publisher

included for their educational value.

Janet,

6227 Groveland Drive Nanaimo, BC, Canada V9V 1B1

volunteer editor/layout …and Penny & Lucky!

Note from Janet: We received a suggestion from a reader asking us to be more careful about only including items in dialogue that are ‘true’ – or, at least to alert readers to misleading statements. However, it is my experience that even the most ‘outrageous’ assertion may contain a grain of truth, however uncomfortable. Our ‘beliefs’ often pose as ‘absolute truths’ – only to be later found to be partially or substantially unfounded. We trust that you, dear reader, will explore this issue with an open heart and an open mind, to discover what rings true for you – and what confronts your cherished assumptions.

Enjoy the challenge and please give us some feedback!! J.

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Tel: 250-758-9877 Fax: 250-758-9855 E-mail: dialogue@dialogue.ca WEBSITE: www.dialogue.ca

DEADLINES: Aug. 1st, Nov. 1st, Feb. 1st, May 1st.

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CANADIAN FEDERAL POLITICAL ISSUES

The role of the Senate Keith Wyndlow Ladysmith BC

I note that there have been several letters in our local paper recently recommending the abolishment of the Senate.

The authors of these letters should look up what the Senate is supposed to be doing. That is taking a sober second look at proposed legislation and recommending changes that would make the legislation more appropriate for the citizens of Canada to live under.

What the public in Canada desperately needs are more senators who have integrity and are not Prime Minister Stephen Harper bootlickers.

I fear that Harper\will take the opportunity of the Senate scandal as an excuse to try to restrict

Choice and consent James Clayton, Cloverdale BC

There seems to be an increasing level of dissatisfaction with government and the present monetary system, but there isn’t a consensus in defining the problem or offering a solution that will sufficiently address all of our concerns or satisfy everyone. This poses a challenge, but it also presents us with an opportunity to carefully examine the form and function of government and money, and explore a full range of possible alternatives.

As consumers we can choose from an ever-expanding array of goods and services that are available from around the world, with the option to customize some of our purchases based on our personal preferences. If we have freedom of choice and a free market then we should be able to individually select the goods and services that we wish to purchase from a variety of producers and providers. We certainly should not be forced to pay for anything that we don’t want or don’t use, and we should not expect anyone else to pay for our purchases.

If we have economic freedom then we should be able to negotiate agreeable prices, control the allocation of our credit, accept or refuse any form of payment offered for our goods and services, and use various methods of exchange. We should not be compelled to use a systemically scarce currency that is created as interest-bearing debt.

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the powers of the Senate, or abolish it.

Since he has stacked the majority of the Senate with his own Conservative loyalists, he does not really have to worry about them blocking any laws he wants to push through Parliament.

It must, though, be a bother to him that he even has to have them go through the formalities of also approving his proposed laws.

A conscientious and impartial Senate is all we have to prevent a government like Harper's from running completely amok with no restraints at all.

I suggest that some restraint and balance was the intent of the founding fathers of our original constitution. 

the production and exchange of goods and services then it should be possible to create numerous ways to serve this purpose, with various concurrent systems operating in any location. This would give us more control over our time, labour, and resources.

If government is a provider of services then it should compete for customers based on the quality and price of any services that it is actually willing and able to provide, including education, health care, security and protection.

We can already seek membership in various communities, organizations or other groups, based on our own political, religious, social, recreational, or business interests. If we have freedom of association and political freedom then we should even be able to choose a political system and type of government, without having to move to a different place, and without imposing our choice on anyone else. This would give us the option to hire people to manage our affairs and make decisions on our behalf, but we would not be represented or governed without our consent.

Imposed political systems and territorial governments with their restrictive geopolitical boundaries could then be replaced with a variety of voluntary communities, mutual benefit associations and autonomous protective groups, with an emphasis on cooperation and collaboration, rather than coercion  and compulsion. www.dialogue.ca

Individual participation in any economic or political system should be entirely voluntary. Everyone should essentially be able to decide how he or she would like to organize and manage his or her economic and political activities. Diverse methods and arrangements can co-exist simultaneously in any lo-

cation to facilitate the production, provision, distribution and exchange of goods and services, for the mutual benefit of all voluntary participants, at their own risk and expense.

James Clayton [jameshclayton@gmail.com] 

Hörður Torfason – The Man Who Changed Iceland Joe Martino, Activist Post

The man who forced the government of Iceland to resign, and removed the IMF representatives from his country, Hörður Torfason, is now teaching meta-modern democracy throughout Europe. The rest of the world would benefit from following the example set by Iceland: Arresting the corrupt bankers who are responsible for the current economic turmoil.

Iceland’s president explained how his country recovered so quickly from the recession:

“The government bailed out the people and imprisoned the banksters — the opposite of what America and the rest of Europe did.”

The true measure of the leader is not how many followers he has, but how many leaders he creates.

The general public hasn’t been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that those in highest levels of power today do not have humanity's best interests at heart.

Watch videos: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/AP-torfason [FORWARDED BY S. McDOWALL] 

Thoughts on Canadian politics today John C. McCullough, Richmond ON My response to an email from Kelsey MacDonald, President of the Nova Scotia Young Liberals, writing to Fellow Young Liberals:

Dear Kelsey [ylc-jlc@liberal.ca], I am sorry I did not reply to your e-mail earlier, but during the recent heat wave in Ontario, I did not get down to reading my mail. Regrettably, I am not the person (Fellow Young Liberal) whom you wished to contact in your province. You see I am now eighty-six years of age and, although I lean to the Conservative side, I look at all of our political parties with a very jaundiced eye today, so to speak.

Examples of this are:1/ The ongoing senate scandals right here in Ottawa (both Conservative and Liberal), e.g. The Conservatives promised transparency when elected to the Federal house. Yet they are anything but in actual practice.

2/ The horrible economic mess here in Ontario, mainly due to the lunatic spending by our current Liberal legislature. We now have a $260 billion debt, with a projected deficit this year of another $14 billion, ---and --- an annual interest payment of $10 billion so far. Just think of what that would buy.

We are now producing excess electrical power which we have to sell to adjacent states and Quebec at bargain basement prices (about 2 cents per kilowatt hour). Yet we are paying wind turbine and www.dialogue.ca

solar providers from 14 to 80 cents per Kw/H, and they must get priority access to the grid. We also are paying one nuclear plant $10 million per month to vent steam instead of producing power at about 4 cents per Kw/h. Also, reducing the output from hydro electric power, the cleanest (greenest) of all of our power sources. If you don't believe me, go on the net and call up IESO.ca, which gives you  minute-by-minute electricity generated from all Ontario sources. In fact, last week, during our heat wave, wind and solar was only producing about one percent of our power generated. So much for the Green movement.

3/ The idiotic musings of the leader of the NDP, e.g. the Alberta oil sands production. He mistakenly calls them the tar sands. Would he be so critical if this source was in Quebec? I don't think so.

Regrettably, I have reached the conclusion that there are only two things I dislike about our current crop of politicos: their face--- They all have two…!

To conclude, forgive me for bending your ear, and I do encourage you to change the existing establishment, if you can. We do need young people like yourself to do this, regardless of party, before we lose this beautiful country. We may even need a new party to do this. Keep an open mind. LISTEN! Kindest regards and blessings too, John Carson McCullough, Richmond ON  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Open Letter to Israeli Leaders CANADIANS FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Canadian writers urge halt to evictions of Palestinians, Bedouins Eminent Canadian writers fight literary battle for Palestinian cave-dwellers

Background at: http://thestar.blogs.com/worlddaily/2013/07/eminent-writersfight-literary-battle-for-palestinian-cave-dwellers.html

“These Palestinian villagers have inhabited their homes for several centuries,” says their open letter to Israeli and Canadian leaders. “Evicting them would violate international law and cause extreme hardship.”

Montreal, July 8, 2013 — Seventy of Canada’s top writers have signed a joint letter urging Israeli authorities to halt the evictions of 1000 Palestinians in the Southern Hebron Hills (West Bank).

They are also urging Israeli leaders to reject the Prawer Plan, under which an estimated 20,000 – 70,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel will be forcibly relocated, with about 35 of their communities in the Negev being destroyed. Signatories include many of Canada’s most respected poets and novelists — Michael Ondaatje, Yann Martel, Alberto Manguel, Lorna Crozier, Rawi Hage, Edeet Ravel, Patrick Lane, Maggie Helwig, Kyo Maclear, Stan Persky, Shani Mootoo, Lisa Moore and Shyam Selvadurai — as well as best-selling non-fiction author and health activist Dr. Gabor Maté.

“It is inspiring to see Canadian writers demonstrating ethical leadership, especially at a moment when Canada’s political leaders seem to have lost their moral compass,” notes Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. He adds that the fact that Israeli authorities plan to evict another 1000 Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills to make way for an Israeli army firing zone bodes ill for resumption of peace negotiations.

The Canadian writers’ letter echoes a campaign last week by 25 Israeli writers - including David Grossman, Amos Oz and AB Yehoshua - against the South Hebron evictions. The Canadian writers also back the European Parliament’s call for Israel to abandon its plan to forcibly displace the Bedouin. Despite international outcry, the plan passed first reading in the Israeli Knesset last week. The evictions of the Bedouin under the Plan are scheduled to begin in August.

CJPME believes that the Israeli government’s refusal

to seriously consider the Bedouin’s concerns and alternative proposals exemplifies the second-class standing of Israel’s Arab citizens—20 percent of the population. Israel’s massive land-grab in the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territory) violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and Palestinians’ fundamental human rights. CJPME points out that the South Hebron Palestinian communities facing destruction have lived there for hundreds of years, and that Israel has designated about 18 percent of the West Bank as Israeli military training territory. The Bedouin have inhabited the Negev since the 7th century.

For the complete text of the Canadian writers’ open letter to Israeli leaders, and the current list of signatories: www.cjpme.org Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is a non-profit and secular organization bringing together men and women of all backgrounds who labour to see justice and peace take root again in the Middle East. Its mission is to empower decision-makers to view all sides with fairness and to promote the equitable and sustainable development of the region. For more information, contact Patricia Jean, 438 380 5410, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East www.cjpme.org 

2 videos to watch & an important article for “The Great Turning” From: Herb Spencer [spsi@shaw.ca] The following talk illustrates that the Internet is far more dangerous than we ever thought. – Herb

The Threats of Facebook and data mining

From ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com: This is an incredibly clear-headed and brilliant talk about the horrors of data-mining and the future of our civilization. Not to be missed! Video (about 64 mins): LINK: www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/24240.html

50 Worst Charities Exposed! (CNN Report) Be careful with some of these charities (many fundraise for cancer). View the report at Mercola.com LINK: http://tinyurl.com/MERcharities

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New Monetary Systems for a Sustainable Democracy and "The Great Turning" Brilliant, proving that most of an economy is internal. We don't have to give away our resources for foreign capital…

By Margaret Flowers& Kevin Zeese, 31 July 2013, TruthOut.org/: Our money system is ill-equipped to help us solve

the pervasive socio-economic and ecological challenges we face. Transformation of our money system is critical because monetary diversity is just as important to human survival as biodiversity is to the fate of the earth. There is a lot that we can learn from nature, and one important lesson is that diverse systems have greater strength and resilience. […] LINK: http://tinyurl.com/T-17878 

www.dialogue.ca

“Have Computer Will Write”~ Jeremy Arney Standing Committee fails the people of Lac Mégantic and all Canadians Letter sent to MPs of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities re the meeting of July 23rd Jeremy Arney, Victoria BC

As a result of the rail accident at Lac Mégantic it was decided to call the members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities together in Ottawa. Anyone who was looking for something to come from this expensive waste of time was sadly disappointed yet again.

Taken from the Harper Administration’s website, Tuesday, July 23, 2013: “The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities met in a televised session at 3:59 p.m. this day, in Room 237-C, Centre Block, the Chair, Larry Miller, presiding. Members of the Committee present: Mark Adler, Robert Aubin, Olivia Chow, Joe Daniel, Ed Holder, David J. McGuinty, Larry Miller, Lawrence Toet and Jeff Watson. Acting Members present: Costas Menegakis for Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Pierre Nantel for Isabelle Morin and Jean Rousseau for Mike Sullivan. In attendance: Library of Parliament: Alexandre Lavoie, Analyst. House of Commons: Andrew Lauzon, Procedural Clerk.”

(The meeting was over by 5:29 pm, a whole 90 minutes)

From the minutes of the meeting published by the Harper Administration and taken from its website: the first order of the day was a motion by Watson to do nothing until the results of the current enquiries were to be made known, and at that time the committee’s enquiry would begin. This motion made unusual sense and was accepted unanimously.

An NDP motion then made was for the already recommended changes suggested to Transport Canada over the last 20 years or so and as yet ignored, to be implemented as soon as possible without waiting for another 3 or 4 years of enquires.

I believe the NDP thought such a positive action would have some traction with CPC MPs who expressed nothing but concern and offered lip service to the people of Lac Mégantic. After they claimed their duty to Lac Mégantic and their constituents and constituencies, they then voted against anything that would get in the way of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway quietly going bankrupt and avoiding any claims or liabilities. Heck, I am sure if MM&A handled it right, we the Canadian taxpayers, would be on the hook for another $130 million www.dialogue.ca

under NAFTA, just as we were for Abitibi Bowater in 2009.

Messrs. Adler, Daniel, Holder, Menegakis, Toet, Watson and McGuinty, you just cost the taxpayers a bundle in getting you all back there to achieve absolutely nothing except to claim that you met for 1.5 hours. This is just the sort of arrogant nonsense that Canadians all over the country are really beginning to despise in MPs such as you. We can rely on you to do nothing for us, but everything for the unelected, unaccountable and out-of-control PMO. You can spew the kind of words you did in this meeting about democracy and working for the people, but it is all lies; and I for one am tired of it.

McGuinty, why are you voting with such dishonest company?

I am paying way too much in far too many taxes, which increase every day it seems, not decrease as your self-proclaimed parliamentary faerie claims, and whilst I am having to work a part-time job at the age of 73 simply to put food on my table, you have the nerve to waste that tax money on such a useless trip back to Ottawa to achieve nothing at all for the people of Lac Mégantic, nor for your constituents also facing transportation inaction from this government. It is past time when you can blame the Liberals as you have now been desecrating Canada for 7 years… It’s your responsibility… Face up to it or hand it off to people who care.

QUITE SIMPLY I DO NOT APPROVE AT ALL OF YOU, MY EMPLOYEES, MAKING SUCH A MOCKERY OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE AND THE TRAGIC BUT AVOIDABLE WASTE OF LIFE WHICH SIMPLY HAPPENED BECAUSE OF SHODDY REGULATIONS AND (LACK OF) SAFETY WORK TO SAVE A BOTTOM LINE DOLLAR OR TWO.

Yes I sound angry and I am; and if this puts me on your CPC hate list, so be it.

Jeremy Arney, Victoria BC CAP member and past candidate for SGI Jeremy Arney [EMAIL: iamjema@gmail.com ] Jeremy’s blog: http://jeremyarneysblog.wordpress.com/ 

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Members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities should be ashamed of themselves Stephanie McDowall, Nanaimo, B.C.

Letter to Canadian media, party leaders re Standing Committee meeting of July 23, 2013 It is shocking to observe how little Canadians matter to our parliamentarians, even under the most horrifying of circumstances. The members of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities should be ashamed of themselves. "[T]hey (the Committee) then voted against any-

thing that would get in the way of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic railways quietly going bankrupt and avoiding any claims or liabilities."

The Committee voted to screw the people of Lac Mégantic. It's no wonder Canadians hold most MPs with little or with very low regard, and this includes Stephen Harper. Most deserve their bad reputations. [stephmcdo@telus.net] 

THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN MEDICARE

OPEN LETTER TO PREMIERS Signed by Shirley Douglas, Sharon Sholzberg-Gray, Maude Barlow

As strong supporters of public health care, we are deeply concerned that the federal government led

by Stephen Harper appears to have no intention of engaging the provincial and territorial governments to secure a new 10-year Health Accord when the current one expires in 2014.

Public health care reflects our fundamental values of equity and fairness. Protecting and improving our public health care system is a top priority for Canadians. Yet, the federal government is retreating from supporting and upholding public Medicare. It has downloaded costs and responsibilities and abandoned its essential federal role in encouraging innovations like curtailing the cost of drugs and expanding the principles of Medicare to cover home and continuing care.

The federal share of funding for health care, already low, will decline by $36 billion in coming years. Ottawa plans to leave the risks and the pressures to prov`

inces and territories to deal with on their own. In addition, the Harper government has also cut health care for refugees, RCMP, veterans’ long term care beds, and terminated the Health Council of Canada.

On July 24th-25th, at your meeting in Niagara-onthe-Lake of the Council of the Federation, you have the opportunity to take a stand for public Medicare and call the Harper government back to the intergovernmental table in order to work together for the necessary changes to ensure universal access to quality care for generations to come.

Know that you have overwhelming public support to advocate in the strongest terms possible for federal leadership on health care and a renewed Health Accord.

For more information (and full list of supporters): http://healthcoalition.ca/open-letter-to-premiers-onhealth-care/

Michael McBane, Executive Director Canadian Health Coalition 251 Bank Street, Suite 212, Ottawa, ON K2P 1X3 Tel. (613) 277- 6295 Email: Mike@Medicare.ca / www.HealthCoalition.ca

“Wavelet Whisper”

How to handle voter identification calls Denny Z. Petrik, Lower Mainland BC ‘Federal Court finds election fraud.’ In the subject article, Maude

Barlow makes a very interesting statement: “...and that the purpose of these calls was to suppress the votes of electors who had indicated their voting preference in response to earlier voter identification calls.”

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calls from various parties and I responded with the simple: “If I were to tell you how I am going to vote I would be stupidly giving up the treasure of secret ballot.” And the callers hung up.

Perhaps a similar reply should be given to voter identification calls till the callers get tired of hearing it and go and find something useful to do.

REF ARTICLE: www.canadians.org/media/other/2013/23-May-13.html 

www.dialogue.ca

Intimate Details

My friend Susan McCaslin, poet and activist

By J. S. Porter, Hamilton, Ontario – www.spiritbookword.net

When you gaze into my friend Susan McCaslin’s lively eyes, you might think, She’s a poet or an intellectual. You wouldn’t necessarily think, She’s an ecowarrior, a poet-warrior. (Susan doesn’t like martial metaphors. I think she’d prefer to be known as an ecopoet or perhaps even as a servant to the Earth or a daughter of the Muse.)

Years ago, she protested against the war in Vietnam.

Then she worked towards, and achieved, a Ph. D., wrote poetry, taught English at Douglas College, married her husband Mark and gave birth to her daughter Claire. For this poet-teacher-scholar-mother, protest wasn’t part of her day to day life until…until she fell in love with a forest. Then in solidarity with WOLF (Watchers of Langley Forests) and fellow-poets, she rose up and protested the imminent destruction of McLellan Forest East in Langley, BC. Love makes you do strange and wonderful things.

“Last Thanksgiving, I discovered that Glen Valley in Langley still had some mature rainforest. This discovery was bittersweet, however, as I also learned the Township of Langley was planning to sell it off to raise funds to build a recreation centre.”

(As Robert Bateman was to say later, “What’s a better recreation centre than a forest?”)

Susan wondered what it would take to transform herself from “a quiet, contemplative poet” into “someone more socially and politically engaged.”

“As we walked under the canopy of Douglas fir, Western red-cedar, and hemlock, the light filtered down on us through the branches of deciduous trees. We stepped over maidenhair, sword, and liquorice ferns, then paused at the base of a giant Black Cottonwood, a tree said to be hundreds of years old. I knew that this was it. I’d fallen in love with a forest and become an activist.”

Susan remembered the ancient Chinese poet Han Shan, the man to whom Jack Kerouac dedicated Dharma Bums. Didn’t he write on rocks and hang poems from trees? She called her campaign to save McClelland Forest East the Han Shan Poetry Project. www.dialogue.ca

She put out a call for tree poems. “My calls soon appeared on people’s blogs and websites all over the world. Over 150 poems poured in within a week and a half and within two weeks the number had gone up to well over 200.” Poets across Canada contributed their poems, including Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane.

Susan and her husband “placed the poems in plastic paper protectors, threaded them with colourful ribbon and string, and with the help of WOLF, spent an afternoon festooning them on trees without harming a single branch… Poems pirouetted like white angels.”

Choirs sang in the forest. Artists joined in, including a very famous one – Robert Bateman. The CBC and Global TV News covered the story, as did The Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun. The Han Shan Poetry Project fast became The Little Engine That Could.

Hearts opened in the presence of poetry, including the hearts of councillors, and then wallets opened as local citizens contributed to the saving of the forest. The Mayor and Township retracted their decision to sell the forest to developers and took 60% of the land off the market. There’s a good chance the entire 25-acre parcel will become a park or ecological reserve. Mission almost accomplished but vigilance necessary.

Susan and her merry band of protesters must have had lines from Muriel Rukeyser’s poem “Wherever” on joyful revolution and celebratory protest stitched into their hearts: “Wherever/ we walk/we will make.

Wherever/we protest/we will go planting”.

Make poems seed grass feed a child growing build a house Whatever we stand against We will stand feeding and seeding The Han Shan Poetry Project began in love and ended in love. For more about Susan’s marriage of ecology and poetry, and her love of spirit, book and word, turn to her website www.susanmccaslin.ca/  [See Susan’s full story & poetry, next…]

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Arts and Activism

by Susan McCaslin

The arts have always been avenues for both contemplation and action. Poetry may be seen as one of the softer art forms, but it can be one of the most powerful.

Like the earth itself, poetry arises from the dark ground of being, from unknowing, from mystery.

Poets give voice to the unspeakable though speech and storytelling. Yet all things speak, and language includes other-than-human forms. Trees, which I believe are sentient beings, can call artists to participate in their life-giving powers.

Last October, an old, ecologically rich, endangered rainforest in Glen Valley, Langley, British Columbia known as McLellan Forest East called me to become an activist.

I could have reminded myself that the word poetry itself, poesis, means “a making,’ at once a form of being and doing. Art as praxis. Everywhere poets are jumping in, whether on issues of peace and social justice or the Enbridge pipeline.

What tipped the scales for me last October was the act of falling in love with a particular forest. Once I’d committed myself, something compelled me to go flat out to save it.

So I leapt into the fray in my local neighbourhood.

After organizing several art-in-the-park afternoons involving local artists and students, I remembered an ancient Chinese hermit poet who hung poems from trees.

Under Han Shan’s inspiration, I spearheaded the Han Shan Poetry Project. Soon over two hundred poets from British Columbia, across Canada, and around the world had submitted tree poems. We suspended them in plastic page protectors in the forest for two months over Christmas. People came from far and wide to stroll and read poetry. The story garnered coverage in The Globe and Mail and Global TV News.

After hearing from other artists elsewhere working on similar issues, I came to see our local issue as a microcosm of what was happening globally. We felt empowered but with some trepidation, since developers were poised at the rim of the woods.

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of great intrinsic value. Once they are destroyed they will be gone forever. We and the planet need them for survival. They make us who we are and without them we are infinitely diminished.

Now I know firsthand why activists are called “activists.” When on a rescue mission, one has to respond, troubleshoot, and strategize in the moment.

It requires a kind of “restless unrest” that can be heady, stimulating, and exhausting.

I also understand in my bones why it takes a village to save a forest.

Without the earlier and ongoing work of a local group called WOLF (Watchers of Langley Forests) and the help of multiple volunteers, we never could have garnered enough national attention to turn the situation around. And after gaining local, provincial, and national media coverage, the Mayor and Township finally retracted their decision to sell the land to developers, taking 60% of the land off the market in January of this year. Now there’s a good chance the entire 25-acre parcel will become a park or ecological reserve, but we need to press the politicians to carry out their implied intent.

When we added our voices to the voices of the forest, something shifted. An opportunity opened.

When we paused, listened, were curious and respectful, the forest rose up through the soles of our feet and we became for a time something larger than our fragile egos. We become fractals of the dark ground reaching skyward.

Now I can say with surety that community matters, art matters, forest habitat matters.

Something is in the air.

[More about the story, on p.11-12.] For details about our efforts and how to help, check out the following: McLellan Park Blog - http://mclellanpark.blogspot.ca/ Susan’s article in Common Ground http://commonground.ca/?s=Susan+McCaslin&x=0&y=0 Jack Layton: Art in Action (book launched in April/May 2013) – LINK: http://tinyurl.com/PJartinaction LINK: www.quattrobooks.ca/books/jack-layton-art-in-action/

Susan McCaslin is a Canadian poet and Faculty Emeritus of Douglas College in Westminster, BC where she taught English and Creative Writing for twenty-three years. She is the author of ten volumes of poetry, including her most recent, Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press, 2011). The latter was a finalist in 2012 for the BC Book Prize  www.dialogue.ca

(Dorothy Livesay Award) and the first-place winner of the Alberta Book Publishing Award (Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award). Susan has recently published a volume of essays, Arousing the Spirit: Provocative Writings, Wood Lake Books, 2011, LINK: www.woodlakebooks.com/search/results/inventory/AllProducts/Arousing-the-Spirit/Arousing-the-Spirit/ . Susan

has edited two anthologies and is on the editorial board of Event: the Douglas College Review. She lives in Fort Langley, BC with her husband and an active Australian shepherd.

WEBSITE: www.susanmccaslin.ca LINK: http://essential-spirituality.com/2013/04/24/arts-andactivism/

The Story of the Han Shan Poetry Project: How Poetry Came to Save a Rainforest

by Susan McCaslin

Last Thanksgiving, my husband and I visited an old rainforest in Glen Valley, Langley, British Columbia, not far from our home. We’d heard the Township of Langley was planning to sell it off to raise funds for capital projects.

As we walked through the forest, we paused at the base of a giant Black Cottonwood, possibly 240 or more years old. I’d fallen in love with a forest and become an activist.

This forest and a neighbouring one had been publically owned for decades. The westernmost parcel, known as “McLellan Park West,” had been taken off the market because of public outcry led by a local group of residents called WOLF (Watchers of Langley Forests). In July, WOLF was given a twomonth window to raise three million dollars with which to purchase McLellan Forest East.

Many felt it unfair to force residents to buy back land already belonging to them. Besides, shouldn’t there be other ways to raise funds for capital projects than destroying a rare, wild ecosystem?

It was rumoured a local developer wished to selectively log and build private country estates. If this happened, the land would no longer be accessible to the public. It would cease to be a vital ecosystem providing suitable habit for the endangered Pacific Water Shrew, Oregon Spotted Frog, the blue-listed Red-legged Frog and Great Blue Heron.

Scientific reports had documented the ecological value of the forested areas, but the Mayor and Councillors continued to speak of the land as “inventory,” “surplus,” and “idle land.”

It takes a village to save a rainforest. But what can an artist do? It occurred to me that poets understand the intrinsic value of nature and out need for it. So I decided to organize “An Afternoon of Art and Activism” or “Art in the Park” in McLellan Forest East. www.dialogue.ca

This event drew together local visual artists, poets, musicians, ecologists, photographers, a dancer, university students, high school students from the Langley School of Fine Arts, and the general public.

A week later, 160 high school students from the Langley Fine Arts School poured out of two big yellow buses to sketch, sing, and photograph the forest. After sharing their art in the woods, they organized a poetry reading and photo show of their own at a local café.

Next, my husband noticed an ad in the local paper announcing renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman would be signing books in a nearby mall. He quickly emailed Bateman’s website, and within an hour or so, Bateman himself responded: “Yes, I’ll be there in the morning.”

Bateman commented on the irony of logging a vital ecosystem in order to build a recreation centre elsewhere. “This is the recreation centre, right here!” he said, gesturing to the earth. Shortly after, the story went national.

My poet friends were eloquent in their support for protection. Dispersed across Canada, many would be unlikely to come see the forest for themselves.

How could their voices be present here?

Then I remembered studying the zesty poems of an old hermit monk from ancient China named Han Shan from Cold Mountain. There he scribbled poems on rocks and suspended them from trees. Han Shan was to become my mentor and muse. The Han Shan Poetry Project was born.

I put out a call for tree poems on the websites of the various writers’ organizations. Soon my calls appeared on people’s blogs and websites all over the world. Over 150 poems poured in within a week and a half, and within two weeks the number had gone up to over 200.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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McLellan Forest should be protected as an “ecological reserve.” However, they would not provide We placed the poems in plastic paper protectors, funding to allow this to happen. threaded them with colourful ribbon, and festooned them from the trees. Poems poured in from all over Within a few days, the Mayor and Council turned the lower mainland, around, announcing the forest Dear Lovers’ Tree Vancouver Island, other had been given another

By Susan McCaslin provinces, as well as New reprieve. A local newspaper Mexico, California, I fell in love with a forest declared McLellan Forest the Florida, the UK, Australia, “story of the year.” and became an activist and Turkey. The exhibit In response to grassroots but first there was you included poems by major initiatives, in January of 2013, one, no, two, two cedars twinned prize-winning Canadian the Mayor and Council sent out poets like Lorna Crozier around the heartwood of a tree husk a press release saying they and Patrick Lane, Fred were taking the parcels in the a realm—two torsos attuned Wah (the Poet Laureate of western part of the McLellan stretched limb to limb Canada), and children as East off the market, while young as six years of age. two root systems’ wet entangling authorizing the sale of the four Poems pirouetted like lots to the east. The community two of you ascending white angels. Heavy drops was greatly relieved that sixty splitting, reuniting of rain, frost, sprigs of percent of the forest would be moss, and bark covered like Plato’s round being saved. It was clear that without them and seemed the the public outcry, and months against the gods of progress forest’s way of claiming of work, the entire forest would There are those who would chainsaw them. We advertised the have been sold. your wide open hearts event in the local papers as Elation was qualified by the forest’s anthology. Poet and, yes, you pant toward union disappointment, since the portion had set their small gestures of land the politicians wish to sell under the sky canopy of creative expression contains some of the most bride-ing the soar of day beside the vaster creativity sensitive habit for species at risk of nature. palm to palm like holy palmers’ kiss * and endangered species.

People arrived from all blessed jointure each to each Yet poets claim this union of over the lower mainland to arts and activism a victory for pressed each into the other’s ahhhh stroll through the woods, all. The Han Shan Poetry So, silenced at your mossed knees pausing to read the poems.

Project demonstrates that the Local visual artist Susan I surrender all arts have an untapped Falk donated a painting to to the forest which makes and repotential for transforming the ongoing work of society. Art and activism can makes WOLF. The Opus dovetail in remarkable ways. I your lust and breath Women’s Choir would say this is because art your aching stately pavane ** performed in the forest. pauses before beauty, raising the At the Langley Township *holy palmers’ kiss: Juliet to Romeo in Shakespeare’s conflict between conservationRomeo and Juliet: "For saints have hands that pilmeeting just prior to the ists and developers beyond their grims hands do touch, / And palm to palm is holy December deadline, WOLF various ends. It appeals to a palmers' kiss." Palmers are pilgrims who go to a sainformed the politicians cred site. common recognition of beauty ** pavane: a stately Renaissance dance they weren’t able to raise in biodiversity. the three million. A letter from the BC Ministry of An activist must live in the paradox of unknowEnvironment arrived that afternoon saying that, in ing. For me, it wasn’t easy being in the process  response to recent government ecological studies, THE HAN SHAN POETRY PROJECT, contd.

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www.dialogue.ca

without attachment to outcomes. Yet there is always the consolation that nature holds us within a larger story, a more expansive narrative; that somehow our words and actions matter.

Yes, poetry matters, as old Han Shan himself could have told us.

The forest’s story is not over. McLellan Forest East and a neighbouring forest, McLellan Forest West, have now been taken off the market as a result of

our campaign. There are indications that a private donor is in the process of purchasing the land in order to see it is designated an ecological reserve.

Susan McCaslin, Langley BC This article appeared on the Ooligan Press blog in Portland (http://ooligan.pdx.edu/tags/susan-mccaslin/) and an earlier version was first published in the March 2013 issue of Common Ground.

[SEE ALSO P. 60] For updates on the forest’s status check: http://mclellan-park.blogspot.ca/ 

Art and Awakening

You Get What You Pay For A Vindication of Common Sense

From: ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com This transcription is part of the reading accompanied with illustrative video at http://tinyurl.com/Fkyouget/ .

It's from an upcoming book, entitled: 'You Get What You Pay For,' written by an (as-yet?) anonymous female author. – From Alexandra Bruce, Publisher, www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/

"We stand at the end of an epoch, At the end of a civilization, At the end of an empire, At the beginning of something else.

Nobody knows what will happen in the next season, but people have got some inklings.

"We're Moving into a new geological era.

Sixth Mass extinction Spasm.

Every Civilization, man, beast, plant, rock mineral, oil; is under silent siege.

"Everywhere you look, billions and billions of stories and we're missing all of them while we stare at something that is not happening, is essentially a lie.

It's all in your minds.

"What is happening is that the planet is awash with slaves, and all of them are heroes just waiting to happen, if only we'd give it some of our attention.

"People tell me that I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders -- indeed, that's why I'd beg a hand carrying it. Spread the load around. But it's not. People aren't watching. They're staring into bright lights, like rabbits before impact, and it freaks me out... www.dialogue.ca

"What really freaks me out – and a lot of you do this – is when you look me in the eye and say, 'It's not happening.'

"The conspiracies, the theft, the propaganda wars.

"The homicides, the homicides, the homicides, the homicides; the lies. The colossal, inter-species genocide. A holocaust.

"Not happening.

Tin Foil Hat. Conspiritard.

Feminazi.

Luddite.

Greenie.

Hippy.

Feral.

Extremist.

Terrorist..."

Please Watch This Video (under 7 mins): This is an excellent short, poignant documentary about Our Times [music, edits, talking by Jordan B.] LINK: www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/art/you-

get-what-you-pay-for.html/

Visit the website of the book-in-progress:

http://yougetwhatyoupayfor.rwrite.org/

You Get What You Pay For A Vindication of Common Sense WELCOME. YOU HAVE DISCOVERED A RAW MANUSCRIPT IN PROGRESS. This body of words deals with the interface between pornography culture, human trafficking and global oppression. It focuses on case studies and perspectives from developed nations, rubbing up against the  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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perilous misconception that trafficking is exclusively a third world problem.

While it focuses on sex crimes, I hope people will also take time to remember the 20 odd million slaves working in forced labour, and the countless billions more indirectly racketeered into a life of debt bondage.

Lives without freedom.

If this book implicates all of us, I suspect a lot of people are not going to like it. This book is not for them. The following is written with a heavy heart, for all those

brave people who will take a stance of compassionate non-compliance, and in doing so — create respite for humanity. Either you know who you are, or you will by the end of this book. That is my wish.

LINK: http://yougetwhatyoupayfor.rwrite.org/

May laughter interrupt sorrow, may honour stoke the fires, May courage endure the ages and deliver us safely home.



ECOSOPHY: IN THE MAY 2013 CCPA MONITOR

Ecosophy (ecological wisdom) stresses harmony with Nature

By Bob Harrington, Galena Bay BC

The term ecosophy (ecological wisdom) was first coined in 1972 by Arne Naess, Norwegian mountaineer, philosopher, and full professor at the University of Oslo. Naess defined ecosophy as “establishment of sufficient wisdom to develop harmony with the state of affairs in the universe.” He sensed that environmental groups of his time were “content” to merely address “shallow” ecological issues which treat symptoms without rectifying causes of the problems. Among his strong concerns was the right of all beings to life. A devotee of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, as well as of Gandhi’s principle of non-violence, he participated in peaceful protests with some degree of success.

Naess was highly decorated for socially useful work; his concept of ecosophy comprises a valuable guide to behavioural changes that could lead to saving the human species from wealth-besotted powers that are leading us toward extinction. Naess rooted his philosophy in an awareness that we need to move away from narrow selfhood and consider ourselves as parts of an ecospheric whole. Every being, he believed, whether human, animal, or vegetable, has an equal right to live and blossom.

Even before Naess, there were historically significant calls for basic earth stewardship. Pliny (23-79 A.D.), a Roman naturalist and scholar, was among the first to express dismay at the way men of his time were abusing the planet’s resources in their search for wealth. In Natural History, Book II, he wrote: “For what luxuries and for what outrageous uses does Mother Earth not subserve mankind: She is 14 dialogue

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flung into the sea, or dug away to allow us to let in the channels… In order to make the sufferings inflicted on her surface and mere outer skin seem endurable, we probe her entrails, digging into her veins of gold and silver and mines of copper and lead; we actually drive shafts down into the depths to search for gems and certain tiny stones… We seek a jewel merely to be worn upon a finger.”

Even before Pliny, Lao Tzu noted in the 6th century BC: “There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.

There is no greater guilt than discontentment.

And there is no greater disaster than greed.”

Since Naess made his call for ecosophy, other scholars have expanded on the idea of protecting Earth by advocating greater integrity and stewardship. One of these, Dr. Henryk Skolimowski, professor emeritus of the University of Michigan, has promoted the concept that “the world is a sanctuary for life.” He reiterated Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s conclusion that “reverence for life” should be a guiding value in governing our behaviour. Contrary to industrial encouragement of greed, Skolimowski’s conviction is that frugality is an essential precondition for inner happiness.

This view was earlier expressed by transcendentalists, who felt that people are rich in proportion to the number of things they can get along without. Pursuing the holistic aspect of our lives, Dr. Skolimowski stated that, “Spirituality and rationality do not exclude each other, but complement each other.” He advises us that we constitute the core of our own problems and that, “In order to heal the planet, we must heal ourselves.”  www.dialogue.ca

“To be healthy is to be on good terms with the cosmos.”

(Continued from previous page)

Dr. Skolimowski’s basic contentions follow: 1. Eco-philosophy is life oriented. Contemporary leadership has succumbed to harvesting wealth. “We observe that, acting on this allegedly superior knowledge provided by science and scientifically oriented philosophy, we arrive at major ecological, social and individual pathologies.”

However, “All philosophy has only one justification: the enhancement of life.”

2. Eco-philosophy signifies commitment to human values, to Nature, to life itself. Existing philosophy calls itself objective, whereas objectivity is an actual figment of our minds. Objectivity, as we call it, is linked with methodologies which create “the myth” of objectivity. “The proliferation of methodologies is a menace: although they were made to be an aid and help, in the long run they become crutches, a substitute for thinking.”

3. Eco-philosophy is spiritually alive, whereas most of contemporary philosophy is spiritually dead. Spirituality is a state of mind — really a state of being. Much of contemporary Earth management is spiritually dead, because human focus on wealth and power has been achieved by belittling and crassly manipulating Earth’s integrity. Our willingness to be spiritually dead and treat Earth as a tool for achieving wealth exemplifies our personal enslavement to materialism. Present viewpoints deny and vehemently exclude life of the spirit.

4. Eco-philosophy is comprehensive and global, whereas present philosophy is piecemeal and analytical. The world is a wholeness, but we choose to treat it otherwise. We must look upon Nature and life compassionately. A philosophy that shuns life and commitment to it is part of the entropic process leading to death. Our mania for development may signify that this death-wish stems from poorly defined progress. Ecophilosophy (ecosophy) must reverse this process.

Though brilliance may have been lodged in our scientific worldview, the narrowed energy that has guided us thus far has been misspent. The modern worldview (philosophy) “has locked itself in a hermetic cul-de-sac.” Humanity has elected a materialistic, spiritually deprived world. www.dialogue.ca

Skolimowski advises that the public domain has been dominated by “the greedy, the rapacious, the exploitative.” Eco-philosophy stresses the courage to vastly correct these profane policies.

5. Eco-philosophy is concerned with wisdom, in contrast to present more frivolous policies that are arbitrarily directed to the acquisition of information. Wisdom is the possession of right knowledge. Right knowledge is based on “holistic comprehension” as compared to “fact and measure,” which are only steps on the way to serious evaluation. E. F Schumacher declared that compassion is essential: “Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.” Judgment and compassion must never be minimized. Wisdom cannot be accrued without these two, because they are the keel of wisdom.

Ruthless rejection of wisdom has caused us to substitute piecemeal specialization to replace pondering upon the ethical, ecological, eschatological consequences of life-threatening development.

6. Eco-philosophy is environmentally and ecologically conscious, whereas present academic philosophy is, to a very large measure, environmentally and ecologically oblivious. Ecological consciousness requires stringent measures of control, which stem from reverence for Nature.

Current politico-corporate activities are often mute on the subject of ecological impact. This silence and inaction may reflect leadership’s conspiracy of indifference, stemming from its desire for a narrowed focus that in truth evades long-term consequences in favour of short-term benefits.

7. Eco-philosophy is aligned with the economics of the quality of life. Contrariwise, economic philosophies of the West seem to be unrelated to any sober, long-term economics, but are in fact aligned principally with material growth. Wellknown thinkers such as Schumacher, Hazel Henderson, and E. J. Mishan have clearly indicated the “fatuity and meaninglessness of economics geared to material growth alone.”

8. Eco-philosophy is politically aware and politically committed. Eco-philosophy is aimed at improvement of the world’s governing systems. VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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It is no accident that stable governance cannot succeed unless it comprehends and treats Nature and Life in a compassionate manner.

9. Eco-philosophy is vitally concerned with the well-being of society. It understands society as a unique entity with a life of its own. The wellbeing of society must become a mode of everyone’s spiritual being. Business is often an insensitive bureaucratic beast that frustrates our individuality. Guided by spiritual commitment, it should strive toward human perfectibility. It is a serious lack that prevailing economic philosophies are more concerned with human control than with realistic social maturation.

10. Eco-philosophy is tolerant of trans-physical phenomena. The physical web of life has become the focus of our attention. To transcend the physical and go beyond that limitation, we must realize that metaphysical insights have been valued for ages. Eco-philosophy signals the beginning of a new epistemology that is pluralistic, life-rooted, and cosmos-oriented, in contradiction to the present one which is matter-rooted and mechanism-oriented. We must escape from our present "constraining universe conceived in the image of a destructive machine."

11. Eco-philosophy is health mindful. In the final analysis, the integrity of our deeds and thoughts – the quintessence of health and vitality we wish to bestow upon our planet – must stem from innate qualities that we have developed within our own psyches. We must develop new and deeper sensitivities developed from more idealistic ones beyond our own. Our beings must

be infused with a new spiritual depth that has grown from first thoughts to deep convictions.

Profit will accrue directly from the compassion we realize is our proper attitude toward the planet and the cosmos in which it lives. "To be in a state of positive health is to be on good terms with the cosmos." To save and heal our cosmos, to moderate all forms of greed and unreasonable expectations, we must transcend greed and demeaning behaviour. As Dr. Skolimowski advises, "The idea of a right to health should be replaced by that of a moral obligation to preserve one's own health." * * *

Long confined to an intentionally materialistic mode of thought, we are continually being divorced from our own innate spirituality. Science tends to minimize the powerful experience that spirituality and sanctity may have on life. The prevailing mythology, endorsed by those powers that identify wealth and power as the sine qua non of successful life, has been blindly tolerated for ages.

The essential message of Eco-philosophy is that we can affect each and every element of our social, spiritual, ecological, and political life – not separately, but by affecting them all at once. Moreover, unless we affect them all, none will be affected.

Eco-philosophy, in essence, attempts to provide philosophical foundations on which an ecology movement can rest and develop further. For, without foundations, no edifice can stand securely.

(Bob Harrington lives at Galena Bay, B.C. His latest book, Testimony for Earth, and a new edition of The Soul Solution with a foreword by David Suzuki, are available for $23 each at www.hancockhouse.com or by telephone: 250-369-2281) 

Short-sightedness – or wilful blindness?

Gunther Ostermann, Kelowna BC

Yesterday I met a nice-looking-well-respected person from the ‘Gaming Industry.’ He made his money by making digital-video-fighting-games for kids.

I showed him a dynamic-fun-toy-game that is actually the model of the hydrogen atom, with the message: I LOVE OUR PLANET – IT IS THE ONLY ONE WE HAVE. As this didn’t move him, I asked him if he knows about Noam Chomsky? Never heard of him!

I quoted him the following paragraph anyways…

One of the greatest intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, shared his concern for our planet on June 4. 2013, in 16 dialogue

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Common Dreams, with these headlines: Eve of Destruction (Or how Destroy a Planet Without Really Trying). Chomsky questions: “What are people doing about it? None of this is secret. It’s all perfectly open.

In fact, you have to make an effort not to see it…”

All he said is… So? I’m in the kids entertainment business! It left me speechless.

My Open Letter to BC Premier Christy Clark:

[appeared in the Kelowna Daily Courier on June 19, 2013]

Dear Christy, your ambition to pay off BC’s debt and not burden the next generation with it is praiseworthy. But, have you really thought about the big picture? Money and debt is a man-made  www.dialogue.ca

creation and is not real. Natural gas and oil, however, is the real thing and a finite resource. It took billions of years for the Earth to solidify, and now we are fracking it, with already devastating consequences in some places, for short-term gain?

Are you aware, Christy, what Filmmaker Sir David Attenborough said of us humans? “We are a plague on the Earth!” And physics professor Stephen Hawking lamented, “We’re acting with reckless indifference to the future on Planet Earth, it will be difficult to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million.”

Politics seems to be totally disconnected when we consider today’s technology at our disposal: Robotics has replaced human labour, and instead of celebrating and sharing this achievement, we’re in despair. An honest round table symposium could resolve these problems.

The capability of gazillions of electrical radio TV and text signals through space and our body,

without our awareness, has been around since the dinosaurs and, in fact, forever. With the use of atoms humans ‘discovered’ this incredible technology; but is it all good? Financial fortunes are made and lost with the click of the mouse, or in a nano second by super computers, but no loss to those who operate and own the technology.

Immature but computer-savvy soldiers, indoctrinated with the ‘us vs. them’ mentality, sit with a joystick, in comfort, and control a drone that can snuff out the life of people half a world away. I’m deeply ashamed what has become of our species.

You, Christy, may not have had time for thought of these things, but you should, as you have accepted a mighty responsibility for the people of BC, future generations and our planet.

Sincerely, Gunther Ostermann [gco@shaw.ca] LINK: www.kelownadailycourier.ca/letters-to-theeditor/premiers-vision-for-our-province-is-shortsighted-61913.html 

A Report from the 4 t h Annual Healing Walk at Fort McMurray

The Great Canadian Scandal:

Tar Sands Healing Walk Addresses Petro-State Fascism Matt Hanson, Calgary AB “It's a scandal,” environmental activist Tzeporah Berman shouted to an encamped crowd at Indian Beach the night before the Healing Walk. Imagine, each and every CEO to all the employees of the oil and gas industry, blatantly raping their mother and profiting obscenely in the act.

The Tar Sands scandal has gone viral. The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline “is probably the most controversial project in the history of British Colombia other than, perhaps, Claquoyot Sound logging operations,” said Ben West, Forest Ethics Tar Sands Campaign Director, at a Project Ploughshares event in Calgary on April 27.

It’s been the #1 talked about news story in British Colombia now for two years running. In fact there is a study that was done that shows all the next five stories, in terms of coverage, if you combined all the coverage, still did not get as much coverage as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in the last two years.

The entire world is a voyeur to the most heinous crime of physical abuse on Earth today. “All fights, all battles for the planet are important, but some are more important than others. And there is no battle on the face of the Earth more important than what’s going on here in Alberta,” Bill McKibben, climate change scientist and founder of 350.org, said for the outdoor press conference www.dialogue.ca

immediately prior to the beginning of the Healing Walk.

“There are three or four places on planet Earth where there is enough carbon below the soil, that if it gets dug up and burned, then there is no chance that we’ll ever stabilize this planet’s climate, and this is one of them.”

Yet, since 1967, when the first commercial project began to exploit the Athabasca Tar Sands, the crime intensifies to the benefit of a society corrupted by cheap oil across Canada, and around the world. “From the seven pipeline spills in the last five weeks, we know that oil corrodes, and what we’re just beginning to learn is that it’s not just corroding our pipelines,” Berman asserted. “Oil in Canada is corroding our democracy.”

The 4th Annual Healing Walk, attended by about five hundred demonstrators, sent a clear message: local people matter, have voice and are strongly represented across the country and the world. While international activism often necessitates globalization and fossil fuels to wage peace on the Tar Sands, the First Nations in and around Fort McMurray, the Athabasca Chipewyan and Dene peoples, are leading humankind by simply walking, in prayer to the Four Directions. Because of ancient wisdom and the spirit of traditional ceremony and community, industrial traffic slowed to a near halt as far as the eye could see on July 6 around the 14km Syncrude Tailings Loop.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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THE 4TH ANNUAL HEALING WALK, contd.

“When I went into that town of Fort McMurray, you know what it reminds me of, it reminds me of going into the town that’s the ecological equivalent of Auschwitz,” Anishinaabe author Winona LaDuke proclaimed during her keynote speech the night before the Healing Walk.

“The town that’s sitting right next to Auschwitz and saying, ‘Hey, we’re good here, you can get a $35 steak, you can get an $18 hamburger and it’s okay.’ There’s something just psychotically wrong with all that.”

LaDuke’s Auschwitz comparison, especially in the light of modern consumer culture, is significant. Another outspoken critic of power politics, Hannah Arendt, had once led a scandal, transforming international dialogue on the perpetrations of Auschwitz into a parable of modern life.

Arendt’s notion of the “banality of evil” speaks to the mass consumerism that fuels the current destruction of the planet. Status quo consumer society encourages technology and energy overconsumption. One tier of society justifies through intellectual analysis regarding energy, society and the environment, while most are overwhelmed by the unreasonable complicity of leadership.

Therefore, most people remain ignorant of the fact that their immediate, daily actions cause the very atrocities committed against marginalized people and the environment. Espoused in 1961 during the Eichmann Trial, the philosophy behind Arendt’s “banality of evil” teaches how everyday people perpetrate the greatest crimes of humanity, often more so than their leaders. The idea is slowly gaining acceptance among genocide scholars, such as in Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s Worse Than War. “If you breathe air and you drink water, this is about you,” Crystal Lameman, Treaty 6 activist of Beaver Lake Cree Nation, declared at the beginning of the Healing Walk at Crane Lake Park. If the great-grandchildren of Canada look back on the current generation, will they see the current society as people of today see Nazi Germany?

As the Jews were liquidated for business purposes, so the Earth and its First Peoples are being bought and sold, and killed in the process, for the liquidation of bitumen tar into petroleum gasoline. Every day, Canadians are told that progress must continue and economic growth must never regress for any sake, outside of myopic anthropocentricism and politicized Canadian values.

“On the eve of the NEB hearings for the Enbridge pipeline, when our National Minister of Natural Resources put an open letter to Canadians [in The Globe and Mail], calling anyone who opposed these pipelines a terrorist,” Berman reminded demonstrators camped only fifteen minutes away from Fort McMurray. “Essentially saying that if you express concerns then you are acting against Canada’s national interests, that you are an en18 dialogue

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emy.” When environmentalists and Aboriginal peoples who oppose pipeline development are deemed terrorists, political-economic rhetoric in Canada begins to look more like that of the Department of National Defence.

Dissuading public debate is typically fascist. The undemocratic nature of the petro-state further supports the colonial Eurocentric project of civilization, where marginalized minorities, such as Indigenous peoples, are meant to suffer the growing pains of modernization. Indeed, modern progress is often underhandedly defined by the achievements of warfare and genocide against marginal ways of life.

The Canadian infrastructure, as with much of the world, is dependent on the continued suffering, and the scandalous crimes, of the continued power imbalances from the colonial past. “We’ve got to feed these people that consume a third of the world’s resources. That requires pretty much constant intervention into other peoples’ territories, whether they’re Dene, Anishnaabe, Cree, or whether they’re in Venezuela,” LaDuke said with a voice of experience and reason at the Healing Walk. “Constant intervention into other peoples’ territories to keep up this level of entitlement.”

Today, there is global complicity – in the status quo, in the consumers and beneficiaries of non-renewable energy resources – and its concomitant intergovernmental policies. If Canada survives into the future as a memorable entity, people may look back on the country as committers of yet a deeper atrocity, against Earth, and as with a genocidal inclination towards the entire human race.

Will others follow in the example of the First Nations of the Athabasca river basin, whose warnings resound with deep socio-ecological truth? Will Healing Walks spring from the people across the Earth, so that in the name and significance of Mother, the destruction stops and healing starts? Are people around the world willing to stop the destruction and walk for the healing of the Earth, to find a path that slows the destructive course of industry (business) as usual and that offers, not one direction alone, but Four Directions, whole and undivided?

When will people begin to pray through movement, action, and participation?

Around the same time that unparalleled innovations in alternative energy came to the fore, there was a great leap in Western consciousness of natural philosophy. Contemporary science is providing the world with unprecedented advances in material technology and innovation. “The last two years, we have seen more advances in clean energy, in renewable energy and technology, than the last twenty years,” said Berman, at the close of her keynote speech at the Healing Walk conference at Indian Beach. “The last two years were the first two years in human history where new investment in electricity generation for renewable energy, for wind,  www.dialogue.ca

for solar exceeded new investment for electricity in oil, coal, and nuclear combined!” Nonetheless, today there is a greater vacuum of innovation, and that is within the human mind. The current struggle for life on Earth is within each and every human being bridging the great rift between modern life and ancient wisdom.

“I think what has to happen is a change in understanding. It’s not a matter of power, or of muscle or of energy,” the late philosopher Alan Watts said in the documentary, Zen. It’s a matter of the way in which we understand and feel our own existence, not as strangers in a hostile universe, but as integral parts of that universe, as fruits of the universe, in the same way as an apple is a fruit of a tree we are a fruit of this galaxy, we belong to it, we are something it’s doing, but we don’t feel that.

Similarly, in the name of modern physics, the same basic knowledge that allows for the expansion of physical technology offers renewed integrations between ancient wisdom and modern life. The same way of applied thinking – that might destroy life on Earth when derived from philosophies of conquering nature and ethno-cultural assimilation – would also affirm interconnectedness with all forms of life.

Yet, petro-state fascism muzzles scientific inquiry that affirms rootedness, while ensnaring science with political ideology. “The internationally recognized journal of Nature this year, in an editorial, said ‘It’s time for Canada to set their scientists free,’ ” Berman, author of This Crazy Time, said at the Healing Walk. Science, as a truly inventive field of human inquiry, would logically presuppose the very undoing of its concurrent technological manifestations.

“The natural environment is treated as if it consisted of separate parts to be exploited by different interest groups. The fragmented view is further extended to society which is split into different nations, races, religions and political groups,” physicist and international bestselling author Fritjof Capra wrote in The Tao of Physics.

The belief that all these fragments – in ourselves, in our environment, and in our society – are really separate can be seen as the essential reason for the present series of social, ecological, and cultural crises. It has alienated us from nature and our fellow human beings. It has brought a grossly unjust distribution of natural resources creating economic and political disorder, an ever-rising wave of violence, both spontaneous and institutionalized, and an ugly, polluted environment in which life has often become physically and mentally unhealthy.

Life is without meaning, not because it is despairing, but because it requires no other meaning than itself. Life itwww.dialogue.ca

self is significant. Life is self-renewing. Modern human life is more and more devoid of a connection to the sources of life, and so, the mind, and its encouraged symbolic outputs, estranges daily existence from the nature of life. Proactive language (e.g. solutions-oriented media), as with the most advanced scientific thinking, gives voice and agency to ways of life that are self-sufficient, yet still recognize the interdependent nature of life.

The First and Original Peoples of Turtle Island, Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, continue to share the fundamental philosophical similarities with the ecological consciousness of wise, ancient cultures from bygone eras and faraway lands. Understandings that had once triggered a revival of interest in the practical philosophies of interdependence and rootedness are not only springing from Western science itself, but are being voiced by the First Peoples of the Land with greater potency. “Science is important but only if it’s governed and held in check by wisdom, and that wisdom that people have been ignoring for hundreds of years on this continent is finally reasserting itself at exactly the moment when it is most needed,” Bill McKibben said, to close his speech, only moments before the Healing Walk began.

Bad news is good news. Spotlight triggers response, and, at the end of the day, people think as they please, or, more accurately, as is pleasing. Regardless of what it is called, Oil Sands, or Tar Sands, industry gets the lip service. “I don’t want to squander my energy entirely on being reactive, on being reactive to their craziness. Be clear on where we are going,” LaDuke stressed with grounded intensity. “It’s our choice upon which path to embark. One miikanan [path] is well worn but it’s scorched. The other path, they say, is not well worn but it’s green, and it’s our choice. It’s our choice. That’s what our people said about 800-900 years ago.” The ancient wisdom of the Anishinaabe prophecy for the time of the Seventh Fire shared by Winona LaDuke at the 4th Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk offers all a path, or miikana, to a future that is fresh and green and, very simply, to a future.

Beyond pro- and anti-, beyond reaction and action, there is a beginning; a place, from where all people would begin life renewed. That beginning is the elephant in the room; it is every last man, woman and child. In the name of Mother Earth, the Original Peoples along the Athabasca River, and every Healing Walker: All my relations.

Matt Hanson is an activist and writer based in Calgary whose works have appeared in over forty independent, academic and news publications worldwide, with over twenty articles archived on The Media Co-op: www.mediacoop.ca/author/matt-hanson .

This essay was written by Matt, expressly for dialogue magazine, reporting first-hand from the Healing Walk, July 5-6, 13.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 19

Songwriter’s Notebook

Kill Your Computer -- Why the Luddites Were Right David Rovics, Portland, Oregon, May 30, 2013

This is my blog! Here I post stories from the road, announcements about tours and campaigns, reflections on life, death and politics, and more...

(LINK AT THE END)

I was out with a friend the other day, a very dedicated activist and highly effective organizer who I happen to know is on Facebook fairly regularly.

When I asked her how she thought Facebook had affected her life, her emotions, her brain functions, her response was, “hm, I never thought about it.”

I don't know how many other people haven't given this subject much thought, but for me, the influence of all kinds of technologies on society, and on my individual psyche, is something I've been thinking about a lot. Especially since the internet came along, which happened when I was well into adulthood, and had lived without it successfully for a long time already. And then after having a child seven years ago, around the same time that Facebook and internet-capable (“smart”) phones became commonplace, more thoughts on this whole phenomenon were inspired. Probably none of these thoughts are new – thoughts rarely are – but I thought I'd lay out my thinking here, in case it might be of interest to anyone else. It occurred to me that it might be, specifically because I think it's fair to say that I am a good example of someone who has benefitted tremendously from the internet, as a professional independent artist. And yet, I still think we humans would be far better off without any of this stuff.

The advantages of interactive technologies for DIY culture First, let me lay out the good sides, because that itself is controversial. Some of you reading this remember when artists like me would send out postcards every so often, announcing a new CD or an upcoming concert tour. Some of you remember making copies of recordings onto cassette tapes and sharing them with friends. The internet has made this sort of thing immeasurably easier and cheaper, and as a result of taking advantage of this medium – by giving away my music online – well over 2 million of my songs have been downloaded by many 20 dialogue

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thousands of people who, I'm guessing, would otherwise never have come across my music.

The brilliant thing about the internet is it's an interactive technology that tends toward democracy -although it's far from immune to the efforts of big corporations and governments to influence how it works and what happens on it. The fact that most Tweets are apparently related to what's on TV is an obvious case in point. Despite that, the phenomenon of free downloads has changed things in a significant way for independent musicians who take advantage of it. The music industry tries to convince us all that free music is theft, because it benefits them to do that. Many independent musicians believe this hogwash, to their own detriment. Those who see through the lies reap the benefits of this interactive technology that allows us to circumvent, to some extent, a broken and decrepit music industry.

In a nutshell, it goes like this: you put up your music for free. People like it, they share it. You gain fans. A small percentage of your new fans come to your shows. A much smaller percentage of them organize paying gigs for you all around the world. So if enough people like your music, you make a living, if you know how to communicate with people effectively. Is this an ideal way to do things?

Maybe, maybe not – most of us DIY musicians doing it this way might happily take a major record deal and gain much more of an audience that way, but for the vast majority of us this will never happen and we are completely locked out of corporate airplay, so we make do with what's available to us, which is the internet.

OK, so you might say I like the internet, the democratic nature of it, and I've benefitted from it professionally. But every day I wish to live in a world free of screens, speakers, and everything else you plug into the wall.

How it was – the Luddites

The brief, historical movement of the Luddites in 1812-13 provide us with an interesting example. It was the early days of the industrial revolution in England, when most people in England worked the land, or made things with their hands. When some people started building factories to mass-produce  www.dialogue.ca

History of the Luddites, contd.

the things people had, for millennia, been making in small workshops in little market towns, the artisans revolted, and set about to burn down the new factories in the middle of the night, when no one was looking. After a lot of people were hanged and the factories kept springing up everywhere, they gave up, and ultimately changed strategies, admitting the inevitability of mass production and the loss of their lifestyles and livelihoods, and the movement to destroy the factories eventually, you could say, transformed into the labor movement – a movement to make the best of the new situation, and at least get paid a living wage for this alienating, repetitive factory work people were being forced to do.

The movement was crushed violently by the state, as movements usually are, but it also fell victim to the idea that “there is no alternative.” The Luddites proclaimed they would destroy technology that was destructive to community, but ultimately had to accept this community-destroying technology, because the artisans couldn't compete with it – especially when the state was systematically forcing peasants off their land and essentially giving them no option but to work for starvation wages in smogfilled cities, where for the most part they died at a very young age of disease and overwork. For those who could afford to buy the mass-produced products created in the new factories, there were great benefits to be reaped, and as long as you only visited certain towns, you might think England was becoming a more prosperous place. But for the majority of the people, the industrial age brought only misery, alienation, and death, which can be illustrated through lots of statistics which I'm not going to bother with.

Kill your TV – and your radio, CD player, and record player, too

For the first decades of the industrial age – and for millennia before then – it was still the case that if anybody wanted to listen to music, they had to play it. There were some notable exceptions, but for the most part, there was far less of a division between “performer” and “audience.” Most people filled both roles. Still today, even in some of the more remote parts of Europe and North America – and to a much larger degree in many other parts of the world – you can find communities where it is the norm, not the exception, to be a stellar musician. It www.dialogue.ca

is the norm for someone to play multiple instruments, sing well, and have at their fingertips a thousand different songs and tunes. And then came the phonograph, and later, radio. And with it, the professional musicians.

One story I heard about (on the radio, of course – illustrating how life is full of endless contradictions) involved a farming village somewhere in the south Pacific. Every evening after a day in the fields, the people of the village would sit together and sing songs for a couple hours – everyone would sing. Then came their first local radio station. After that, every evening the villagers would sit together after their day of working in the fields – and listen to professionals sing the songs they used to all sing together.

Now multiply that story by a million, and you can probably see where I'm going with this. Eventually those villagers, and all of the villagers and city folk everywhere else, stop sitting in a circle to listen to the radio. Eventually they all get radios, and listen to the songs in smaller groups, or individually.

Eventually they stop singing at all. Whereas before they all knew how to sing, just as they knew how to talk, after a while most of them forget how to sing.

Those few people who are obsessed with music -- those few strange people who continue singing despite the ubiquitous radios and boom boxes that people now think of as a hallmark of their newfound “development” -- now become the “professionals.” Or at least, some of them do – in the new age of recording technology there's only room for a very few “professionals.” Some very few of them become “stars.” They get “big.” Everybody else sits around, listening to them sing, and wonder why they're so depressed all the time.

And then comes TV, and people not only forget how to sing, but they forget how to talk, too. They forget how to tell a story. If they try to tell a story, people tune out, and tell them they're talking too much. Or they talk while the storytellers are trying to tell a story, because people have not only forgotten how to talk, but they've forgotten how to listen, too. Because when music and stories – radio and TV – are no longer participatory, and they're constant, ubiquitous, 24/7, it naturally becomes “background.” So then those few people who continue trying to sing and tell stories have to attempt to teach other people what they used to know naturally – how to listen.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Why the Luddites were right, contd.

The more I work as a musician, doing hundreds of gigs every year, the more I find that the most difficult gigs are the children's gigs. But not because of the children. The children, for the most part, haven't yet learned what “background music” is. For them, everything is still so interesting. When the birds chirp, they look, and listen, and they're fascinated (the young children at least). When people speak, or sing, they find that fascinating, too. They haven't been turned off yet. So when I show up at a library to do a gig for kids, I don't need to tell them to sit quietly – they do that automatically, because it's what they want to do. They're ready for a story, or a song, they want to be transported to wherever I'm going to take them.

It's their parents who are the problem. It's the parents who are standing around on the periphery of the room, chatting, ignoring the music, ruining the gig for the kids. It's the parents who think the appropriate thing to do with a visiting performer is to “multitask” -- paint the faces of the kids while the performer is singing background music. This doesn't come naturally to the kids – it's forced behavior.

The kids who learn to tune out live performance are

the ones who always have the TV on at home, and even for them, it takes years of constant background noise before they learn how to ignore it.

People ask me what kind of music I listen to. I never know how to answer that question. It's like asking me what kind of people do I know. How do I answer that? Hard to put them in a box – thankfully, the people I know are a fairly diverse bunch. When people ask what kind of music I listen to, what they mean is, which CDs do you have in the background as you're doing other things. My truthful answer – none – is not the answer they're expecting, and also doesn't quite answer their question, really. Because it's not that I don't listen to music – I do – but not that way. I rarely listen to recorded music, and when I do, I rarely listen to the same CD twice.

There aren't many people like me, I've found. But the few out there who are like me in that way are other musicians, those who somehow haven't learned to stop singing, despite the radios and TVs constantly, implicitly telling them to shut up. […]

READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/DRluddites During the Spring & Summer of 2013, David Rovics has been on tour in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and Australia 

Hold the Phone

By Eileen Spencer, White Rock BC

Technology scoops us up and skims superficially Over the surface of life Like a snowboard skirts the snow.

How much of this chatter This commotion and clatter This talking while walking Is mere distraction From important action?

Hold on for the ride.

Ipod, iphone, Blackberry or ipad All claim connection But achieve dissection.

Texting and talking - never alone Like trained monkeys Picking up at the tone We serve our phone.

22 dialogue

Lovers and travelers Out for a sail Forget to kiss While they check their mail.

Mothers and fathers Out for a walk Ignore their children For constant phone talk.

VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

Students in class Have been quick to moan At the lecturing prof Who cries “ Turn off your phone1” Technology is compulsive pleasure Our phone an over valued treasure That lets us get away From the boring everyday But while we are transported Our lives are being shorted.

We don’t see each other Or the eyes of our lover We know nothing but the shallow The trivial and the callow.  www.dialogue.ca

Global Affairs and Secret “Trade” Deals FROM WWW.OPENMEDIA.CA – HOME OF THE PRO-INTERNET COMMUNITY:

Diverse multi-national coalition launches alternative process to secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership talks International Coalition to TPP negotiators: Stop negotiating in secret and join with us and the public to chart a better course for our digital future From David Christopher, Vancouver BC Open Media Press

July 24, 2013 – The Fair Deal Coalition, an international group of organizations from across the TransPacific region, is today launching a new, open, crowdsourced alternative to the closed-off and highly secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

The announcement comes as TPP officials wrap up their latest set of closed-door meetings in Malaysia.

Leaked documents show the secretive and extreme TPP will include costly new rules that would criminalize online activity and restrict our digital future.

Fair Deal Coalition members have been active on the ground in Malaysia raising awareness and debating these issues.

The Fair Deal Coalition is made up of a diverse group of public interest and business organizations along with thousands of people from across the TransPacific region who are concerned about costly internet censorship rules being imposed through the TPP. Today, the coalition is launching the first step in its crowd-sourcing process – at http://OpenMedia.org/DigitalFuture – a new tool to gather input from citizens and businesses on how they want their digital future to look. This initiative seeks to correct the stark imbalance in the TPP talks between the interests of old industry conglomerates and those of grassroots citizens, Internet users, innovative web businesses, and content creators.

According to leaked secret drafts obtained by public interest groups, the TPP threatens to stifle online activity, invade our privacy, and cost us money. The TPP would never pass with the world watching – that’s why the negotiations are taking place in secret.

verse network of civil society, businesses, creators, innovators, consumers, technologists, and educators.

We aim to model what a 21st century multistakeholder policy process should look like, in contrast to the near-total secrecy around the TPP talks.” […]

Trish Hepworth from the Australian Digital Alliance remarks “The Internet has profoundly changed the way we create, access, and disseminate culture, and we need to have an open discussion about how copyright law can support creation and access to culture in the digital era. This is what this project aims to do – collecting voices from diverse sectors and countries and creating a productive conversation. It stands in stark contrast to the TPP which seeks to impose an IP regime that is negotiated in secret as part of a trade deal.”

Susan Chalmers from Internet New Zealand: “Ironically, if the TPP copyright chapter was open for public discussion, countries would probably end up with better legal standards for their citizens -ones that support innovation and economic growth, access to information, and make less of an intrusion into how we use and build the Internet. The idea behind Your Digital Future is to have that public discussion, whether invited or not. Now, TPP decision-makers will know how their constituents feel.”

[Read comments from more members at: www.ourfairdeal.org/blog/diverse-internationalcoalition-launches-alternative-process-secretive-transpacific - with active links to sources]

What Fair Deal Coalition members have to say about Your Digital Future:

The Fair Deal Coalition’s ‘Your Digital Future’ tool asks citizens and businesses around the world to consider what kind of rules we need to encourage creativity, participation, and innovation. The Fair Deal Coalition will take this wide-ranging feedback and bring it directly to TPP decision-makers to ensure that citizen voices, and those of the broad Internet community, are heard.

OpenMedia.org Exec. Director Steve Anderson said today, “The TPP is being negotiated in secret.

With the Your Digital Future tool we’re beginning to build a Trans-Pacific Partnership of our own - a di-

The TPP is one of the most far-reaching international free trade agreements in history. We know from 

www.dialogue.ca

About the TPP – Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement:

VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 23

ABOUT THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP, contd.

leaked TPP draft texts that participating nations would be held to much stricter and more extreme copyright laws than now exist under current national laws.

These new rules would criminalize much online activity, invade citizens’ privacy, and significantly impact our ability to share and collaborate online.

Negotiators from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States met in Malaysia to discuss these changes without input from the public, creators, or most businesses. The negotiating documents are classified – unless you are one of just 600 Big Industry lobbyists invited to participate.

TPP meetings took place in Malaysia from July 15th to July 25th. Negotiators have indicated that they are in the “home stretch”, with leaders of the participating countries expecting a resolution sometime in October.

However, reports have indicated that the intellectual property provisions have been quite a “challenging” issue for those behind the agreement.

Over 15,000 people have now signed a petition at

http://OurFairDeal.org , which demands that negotia-

tors reject copyright proposals that would restrict the open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and our fundamental rights.

Internet users around the world can tell decisionmakers that it’s time to open up their secretive process and let our voices be heard by speaking out at www.OpenMedia.org/DigitalFuture .

Contact: David Christopher Communications Coordinator, OpenMedia.ca 1-778-232-1858; david@openmedia.ca

About OpenMedia, “home of the pro-Internet community” - OpenMedia is a grassroots organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open and affordable Internet.

The group works towards informed and participatory digital policy.

‘A Fair Deal’ international coalition: Starting at first in New Zealand and then connecting with organizations and people internationally, a group of individuals from the fields of Internet policy, art, information technology and law got together to discuss a TPP campaign with a copyright focus. What resulted was the idea of a fair deal, one that opens up trade opportunities for TPP member states but doesn’t force copyright and other IP-related changes on us that could damage our future. For more information & list of core members, visit: LINK: http://www.ourfairdeal.org/ 

Impact of the Canada-EU Trade Deal (CETA) on Provinces/Territories – A Basic Strategy from the Trade Justice Network From Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner,

Council of Canadians (forwarded by S. McDowall) EXTRACT & LINK to a document prepared by the Trade Justice Network in July 2013, as a guide for why and how to approach provincial/territorial governments on the CETA negotiations in the next few weeks/ months. Please circulate to community groups and lists that you think would be interested.

CETA AND THE PROVINCES/TERRITORIES – A BASIC STRATEGY

According to the latest rumours, the Harper government would like to announce the conclusion of Canada-European Union free trade negotiations by the end of the summer. This deal has already been delayed many times, and hopefully it will be again.

But an announcement could come over the next few weeks, or months.

While the exact timing is out of our hands, we expect that once an agreement-in-principle is announced, the federal government will ask each province/territory to give its formal blessing to the deal, since so much of CETA will permanently constrain their policy flexibility.

There are two points of possible pressure on 24 dialogue

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the provinces at this stage: 1) It is possible that the trade negotiators for the provinces/territories are operating in a trade deal bubble, without making it clear to other government departments and agencies how their jurisdictions will be affected if the Province/Territory signs on to CETA. 2) If a Canada-EU deal in principle is announced, it will be crucial that we move strongly and quickly to demand that after years of secret negotiations the public should have the right to change or say NO to CETA before any province/territory ratifies it.

We believe there are very simple things we can do independently and jointly on these two fronts in the coming weeks.

BURSTING THE TRADE DEAL BUBBLE

Letters to and meetings with provincial/territorial departments of energy, environment, agriculture, municipal affairs, etc, should happen as soon as possible to express concern about the ways CETA will constrain policymaking in their sectors. These don’t have to be extremely detailed — we can ask questions and propose further analysis — but  www.dialogue.ca

Impact of Canada-EU Trade Deal, CONTD.

letters should help force more inter-governmental communication on what is at stake in the EU deal.

Examples include: - New or existing provincial/territorial environmental regulations that might be constrained by CETA, opening them up to Investor-State disputes for compensation when environmental rules affect EU companies (e.g. fracking moratorium in Quebec); - Provincial/territorial energy, transportation or telephone utilities that will be affected at least by procurement rules, and probably limited in how much they can operate solely in the interests of their province/territory; - Crown corporations for insurance, property assessment, energy utilities, or any of the various provincial/territorial agencies that could be challenged in every aspect of their operation by EU companies;

- “Buy local” policies, for example local food purchasing policies, in the broader public sector (e.g. hospitals in Ontario), that could be interfered with, or eliminated, on tenders over certain thresholds (transit and other utilities a good example of procurement municipalities want the provinces/territories to exclude from CETA); - Provincial liquor stores and agencies could face challenges since the CETA will be the first Canadian FTA where the monopolies and state enterprise obligations will apply fully to provincial monopolies; - Modest economic gains from lowering tariffs could be wiped out by added drug costs from changes to Canada’s intellectual property regime for pharmaceuticals – a fact recognized by the Ontario government and factored into their assessment of CETA. READ IN FULL ONLINE: (with source documents) http://tinyurl.com/CETAtrew-tjn/ 

Egyptian Military engineers anti-Muslim Brotherhood media campaign

Haiti “Reconstruction” : Luxury hotels, sweat shops & deregulation for the foreign corporate elite

TheRealNews.com - Egyptian Ministry of Interior uses light presence of firearms to justify aggressive military action that killed more than 500 peaceful sit-ins, as Saudi and Qatari power dynamics play out behind the scenes

By Julie Lévesque, Global Research, August 16, 2013

TRNN, August 17, 13 - The death toll in Egypt has

surpassed 500, and it could rise as violence continues between military forces and supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Hundreds of protesters have been killed, along with dozens of security forces, after the military used tear gas and live ammunition to clear two protest encampments housing thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Take a look at some of these pictures of protesters pushing an armed military vehicle off a bridge. There are some really powerful and tragic images coming out of Egypt, and scenes of thousands waiting for medical care as well. And now reports are emerging that medical facilities treating Muslim Brotherhood supporters are being attacked. The international community has condemned the violence, and the U.S. has cancelled a planned joint military exercise with the Egyptian military, but they have refused to cut its $1.3 billion in annual aid to the Egyptian military. […]

Listen to interview or read transcript at TRNN, READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/TRNN10585  www.dialogue.ca

“The international community is so screwed up they’re letting Haitians run Haiti.” – Luigi R. Einaudi, US career diplomat, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Assistant Secretary General at the Organization of American States. Haitian author and human

rights attorney Ezili Dantò heard Luigi R. Einaudi make this shocking comment in 2004, as Haiti was about to celebrate its 200 years of independence with its first democratically-elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Apart from his efforts to raise the minimum wage and other social measures for the majority of Haitians living in extreme poverty, Aristide planned to nationalize his country’s resources, a move which meant more money for Haitians and less for multinationals. One month later, in the name of the “international community,” Aristide was overthrown in a coup d’état orchestrated by the U.S., France and Canada.

Today, the “international community” is running Haiti again, colonial style. One can easily tell by comparing the very slow construction of shelters and basic infrastructure for the Haitian majority with the rapid rise of luxury hotels for foreigners, sometimes with the help of aid funds which, we were told, were going to provide Haitians with basic necessities. […]

READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/CRG5344546  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Re-Thinking How We Treat Our Earth

Columbia River Basin ~ A Call for Action J. Molly Bell

This is a call for action. It is now fifty years since the signing of the Columbia River Treaty and it is to be revised or terminated by 2024. This fall or winter the BC and federal governments, as well as the US government, will decide what they will do.

Those who govern with a majority are less likely to listen to their citizens but we must make a strong attempt to be heard.

The Columbia River Treaty of 1964 is a famous international flood control and hydroelectric power agreement between the U.S. and Canada. It created three massive dams in Canada, the Keenleyside (Arrow), the Mica and the Duncan and one in the US, the Libby Dam. Ambitious in size and scope, it provides millions of gallons of storage water (15.5 million acre feet) for the US while the upstream country, Canada, receives guaranteed downstream benefits annually.

An average of $200-300 M goes into the BC government treasury as general revenue. A pittance when measured against the damage to the environment.

Either the US or Canada can request termination or changes as of September 2014 to be implemented by 2024.

This is a rare opportunity to re-think a huge project now that we’ve seen the results of what we did. There is consensus that changes must be made. It is a very complex document and the many interest groups have conflicting solutions. This time, can we remember to include all the other species that preceded our intervention? and remember the people whose home is in the Columbia River Basin?

Imagine. Once the Columbia River was wild and inaccessible, winding through impenetrable groves of giant trees and devil’s club. The exploitation of the Columbia began in the early 1800’s by fur traders looking for the great river that would be an east-west connection from the trading posts to the Pacific. The north – south orientation of the Columbia certainly slowed efforts to find this link. The Columbia River was named after the ship, the Columbia Redidiva, that sailed into the estuary in 1792 but got stranded very shortly. The indefatigable river finder David Thompson came overland through the Athabasca Pass and finally mapped the Columbia in 1811. The shifting 26 dialogue

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sand bars where the tumultuous river met the considerable surf of the Pacific were hazardous for men in ships. It took five decades to master the estuary enough for consistent navigational use.

The original human inhabitants of the Columbia River basin, the North American Tribes in the US and the First Nations in Canada, lost everything after the dams – their land, their culture and their salmon. These people co-existed successfully on the river for 10,000 years. Salmon was sustenance for body and soul. Under numerous laws and treaties, these indigenous people still have sovereign rights to the Columbia Basin.

In the US there are 15 tribes deeply involved in reclaiming their access to the fishery and determining what must be done to recreate an environment healthy enough to support their rights.

Further, when the dams were built, there was the summary eviction of many human families from their farms on the valuable valley bottomland. This expropriation for dam construction was done crudely; there are still many people in the Arrow Lakes area of the Upper Columbia who are bitter and angry after 50 years. No genuine consultation or compensation has ever occurred. Fourteen dams were built on the mainstem of the Columbia River between 1932 and 1972 so that it is the most heavily dammed river in the world. Now, from the vantage of the 21st century, we know at what huge cost to the natural environment and the well being of all its residents, we tamed the Columbia River.

The dams and reservoirs on the Columbia River provide water for five sectors. Flood control is primary because this huge amount of water subject to the vagaries of the weather, differing every year, flows past many settled floodplains. Navigation has become more important since Lewiston, Idaho, 465 miles inland, is a port “on” the Pacific Ocean. Of course, hydroelectric power generation was inevitable. A drop in elevation of approximately 2700 feet or half a mile produces such immense waterfalls that harnessing such power was irresistible. Irrigation of the vast Washington “desert” is extensive; there’s lots of water and the cost of electric pumping is low. The needs of fish and wildlife are on the list not for their own sake but for their uses in recreation and tourism.  www.dialogue.ca

Columbia River Basin, A Call for Action, contd.

Consider the salmon.

They travel thousands of miles in their lifetimes by using the earth’s magnetic field to navigate back to the very streams where they were born. Each female naturally produces 2000-5000 eggs, not excessive given the many perils and predators that face young salmon. If they survive, they swim all the way out to the ocean, and, if they survive, they return from the ocean months or years later to their birthplace to spawn and die. This return consists of swimming upstream for hundreds of miles, always against the current, and straight up over waterfalls. Salmon significantly enhance their home ecosystem when they die by heaving their bodies on a gravel bar to rot and be eaten by their own young and all the other inhabitants of the riparian zone. Although incredibly adaptive, this species has some irrevocable needs: cool water, food and dissolved air.

The men who built the treaty dams on the Columbia River did not consider the salmon at all. Partly because after 1941, the Grand Coulee dam effectively eliminated fish passage from the Upper Columbia River. It did not have a fish ladder and so the largest salmon runs in the world were deliberately or accidentally destroyed. The Columbia River Treaty created three more dams, the Keenleyside (Arrow), the Mica, and the Duncan. Even with fish ladders, the salmon’s habitat is diminished. The Columbia once had the greatest runs of Chinook salmon and steelhead trout in the world. Dam builders insisted that the fish could go downriver through the turbines unharmed. Some certainly did. But how do they get back? By 1983, the salmon and trout population was 3% of the historic peak of sixteen million fish.

Billions of dollars in both Canada and the US have been spent to restock the Columbia with dismal results. Anecdotally, fish catches at present are very low. Even our technological tricks like creating genetically modified fish and adding fertilizer to stimulate food production have been insufficient to restore the fish stocks in the reservoirs. Efforts at restocking only began in the 1980’s. But without a functional riparian zone and with the virtual desecration of the whole ecosystem, these would inevitably fail. The Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program of BC has spent over $100 million in over 700 projects according to their first newsletter in the www.dialogue.ca

summer of 2011. Endangered species legislation and riparian zone protection are more comprehensive and more rigorously enforced in the US compared to Canada. We could do much better.

Thousands of salmon spawning is an astonishing sight and humbling to witness. The annual Fraser River salmon run into the Adams River in BC draws thousands of people, busloads from everywhere in the world, to witness this event that occurs independent of human management.

By the 1980s it was undeniable that the devastation of the fisheries of the Columbia River was caused completely by the dams; it is a classic example of our insensitivity to other species in our endless exploitation of resources. Many subspecies of salmon are now extinct or endangered, their DNA lost forever.

Dams cause extensive modification of the flow and contours of a river. Not only do they preclude the natural flow of rivers but also, stored water is warmer, loses nutrients to sediments and has reduced aeration. The quality of the trapped water in the reservoirs is hugely compromised by clear- cut logging, by runoff from modern agriculture, and by effluent from smelters and factories and pulp mills. Poisons accumulate in the silted bottoms that are then passed up the food chain.

Many demands on the Basin

We have many and often incompatible demands of this river that “flows” for 1243 miles in a basin of 258,000 square miles thereby containing many national, state, and regional jurisdictions all with specific legislation and policies. And dozens of special interest groups make the resolution of issues very complex.

What happens when we add climate change? The eight glaciers at the Columbia Ice fields that help fill the Columbia River are melting. Climate change models forecast there will be less snow but more rain and that the freshets will occur earlier in the year. The natural replacement of ground water into flood plains will soon be less. Water temperatures are predicted to rise.

With the Columbia River Treaty, Canada surrendered its sovereignty over its share of the river.

The compensation for the loss of so many species and habitats, of potential farm land, of recreational and economic activities and of control of the water in BC is far from adequate. The entity responsible for Canadian operations is BC Hydro, a crown  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Columbia River Basin, A Call for Action, contd. corporation theoretically accountable to the taxpayers but increasingly mistrusted due to unfulfilled promises in the past.

On top of all this, dam failure is a real fear of many residents of the Kootenays. No-one knows how long the dams will stand.

The Columbia River Treaty could be amended to allow a nearly constant level in the Arrow Lakes Reservoir, a guarantee of no higher than 1420 feet above sea level all year round. That would begin to restore the environment for the many species of the riparian zone and for the fish. It would vastly improve shoreline stability for human use as well.

We have the people to do this. Bright caring young people who borrowed money so they could make a difference in the beleaguered world they inherited.

Sessions for public input were held in 2012 and 2013 with many comments from the residents of the Columbia River basin offered. Many individuals and groups, both citizen based and in government, have been meeting to discuss alternative means of managing the river. A government appointed panel, the Sounding Board, represents residents that have lived with the reality of the current treaty. For more, SEE: http://blog.gov.bc.ca/columbiarivertreaty/ .

These are people who have devoted a lot of time and thought to alternative scenarios, who are passionate

and knowledgeable. With lots of pressure and support, the Christy Clark cabinet will have to consider these requests.

We know how resilient our Mother Earth can be. We must realize this is truly a rare opportunity to redress the balance in the Columbia River. Make your voice heard right away. A decision will be made by the BC Cabinet by December 2013.

J. Molly Bell Molly Bell retired to a peaceful quiet little village in the BC interior but soon got involved in another (for her) struggle against the corporate world in their relentless destruction of the natural environment. She has lived in many parts of Canada and loves this country a lot. EMAIL: jmollybell@gmail.com 

Columbia Basin Revitalization Coalition Environmental Viability for our Future The brand new website for the citizens group is: www.revivethebasin.ca Columbia Basin Revitalization Coalition Box 100, Edgewood, B.C. V0G 1J0 EMAIL: info@revivethebasin.ca CONTACT INFORMATION [For letter-writing]: CRT Review team - Kathy Eichenberger – Kathy.Eichenberger@gov.bc.ca - 1-250-953-3368 Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Natural Gas bill.bennett.mla@leg.bc.ca 1-250-387-5896 Ministry of Environment - Mary Polak mary.polak.mla@leg.bc.ca 1-250-387-1187 Katrine Conroy - MLA and Opposition Party critic for the CRT, CPC, and CBT - katrine.conroy.mla@leg.bc.ca 1-888 755 0556 Christy Clark, Premier, premier@gov.bc.ca 1 250 387 1715 **citizens action group ** www.revivethebasin.ca 

Bill S-15 – A Trojan horse for Sable Island From Cathy MacLellan, Southwestern Ontario [In mid-June] as other MPs were planning their

exodus from Ottawa, Elizabeth May was working hard right up to the last minutes of the Parliamentary session. During attempts to speed the passage of Bill S-15 before summer recess, Elizabeth May blocked a motion for unanimous consent, concerned that the Bill would allow for oil and gas activities in the newly created Sable Island National Park Reserve. "I am disappointed that the Conservatives, NDP and Liberals were willing to speed this Bill through the House without proper scrutiny, but I am unwilling to take that step," said Elizabeth May. Bill S-15 will, among other things, establish Sable Island as a National Park Reserve, a move that the Green Party enthusiastically supports. Unfortunately, Bill S-15 will also allow Exxon-Mobil to conduct oil and gas exploration activities on Sable 28 dialogue

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Island itself, in addition to drilling and fracking beneath the island using directional drilling. Most troubling of all, all regulation of these activities will rest with the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, an organization with an explicit mandate to promote oil and gas development. Ultimately, despite Elizabeth’s best efforts, the Bill was passed and became law on June 19th. This sets a dangerous precedent that could undermine the integrity of our entire national parks system. While other MPs were willing to compromise at the cost of our environment, our steadfast Green Party MP has refused to do so and instead continues to push our government to uphold Canadian values.

Cathy MacLellan is Energy and Natural Resources Critic in the Green Party Shadow Cabinet

cathy.maclellan@greenparty.ca (Tel. 519-591-9707) 

www.dialogue.ca

Save Our Salmon

MERCOLA VIDEO OF ALEX MORTON & NORWEGIAN WARNING ABOUT FARMED SALMON LINK AT MERCOLA.COM: http://tinyurl.com/MERalex

From Alex Morton, Sointula BC

A Norwegian researcher has raised serious concerns about high levels of contaminants in farm-raised salmon. She claims the type of contaminants detected in farmed salmon have a negative effect on brain development and is associated with autism, ADD / ADHD and reduced IQ. They can also affect your immune system and metabolism The Norwegian Health Department has issued new official recommendations to women of childbearing age or who are pregnant, suggesting they limit farmed salmon to a maximum of two meals per week due to potential toxicity Four major grocery chains in Norway are threatening to ban farmed salmon from their stores unless the farmed salmon industry agrees to change their production to closed pens and guarantees that the fish are safe to eat EXTRACT: As explained by Morton in the video (link above), Dr. Anne-Lise Birch Monsen at the University of Bergen, Norway, has raised serious concerns about high levels of contaminants in farmraised salmon. The contaminants in question originate in wild salmon, courtesy of environmental pollution. These toxic contaminants bind to the fat molecules in wild fish, and when these fish are ground up for use in fish meal together with added high-fat fish oils, these molecules can enter your body where they bind to your cells.

While this can certainly cause health problems for you, it can also pose a very serious threat to the health of your unborn children. As explained by Morton, when you give birth, your body dumps up to 90 percent of the accumulated toxins in your body into the body of your first-born child. More toxins are later expelled through your breast milk.

This is why it’s so critical to avoid toxic exposures throughout childhood and early adulthood, to prevent damage to future generations as well as your own life cycle...

According to Dr. Monsen: "I do not recommend pregnant women, children or young people eat farmed salmon. It is uncertain in both the amount of www.dialogue.ca

toxins salmon contain, and how these drugs affect children, adolescents and pregnant women... The type of contaminants that have been detected in farmed salmon have a negative effect on brain development and is associated with autism, ADD / ADHD and reduced IQ. We also know that they can affect other organ systems in the body's immune system and metabolism."

As reported by Alexandra Morton, a large European study involving about 8,000 newborns found that pregnant women with high levels of toxins in their bodies tend to give birth to children with lower birth weight, which in and of itself may have an adverse on the child’s health.

READ/VIEW VIDEO: http://tinyurl.com/MERalex 

CFIA takes out Kibenge Shooting the messenger: PEI Lab stripped of credentials after finding infectious virus in BC salmon One of Eastern Canada's leading scientists and his lab stripped of international credentials after reporting a controversial virus in BC salmon LINK: www.salmonconfidential.ca/for-media/cfiatakes-out-kibenge/ MORE LINKS: www.vancouverobserver.com/opinion/shootingmessenger-lab-stripped-credentials-after-findinginfectious-virus-bc-salmon The deck keeps stacking higher against wild salmon: http://tinyurl.com/AMdeck Ottawa moves against PEI lab that reported virus in B.C. salmon: G&M, http://tinyurl.com/G-M5582798 For updates visit: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/ 

Comment from Stephanie McDowall: Our Governments would rather see a whole industry (salmon fishery) ruined rather than take necessary action to protect the public which might negatively financially impact their friends. Furthermore... note the decision of the CFIA regarding Canadian beef. E. coli-contaminated Canadian beef caused people to become sick. Very serious illnesses can result from E. coli with permanent health problems. It seems our Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) cannot be trusted to protect Canadians either.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Save Our Forests and Lakes FROM EARTHROOTS.org

Study: Wolf Lake Ancient Forest is Endangered Ecosystem Earthroots Press Release, 26 June 2013

New research from the University of Guelph, published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, says that allowing industrial extraction in a northern Ontario old-growth red pine forest – the largest remaining in the world – would significantly threaten biodiversity in Canada. The study says that Wolf Lake Forest Reserve is a ‘scientifically irreplaceable system.’ Old-growth forests have dwindled in North America because of timber harvesting, land conversion and other human uses. Today they cover less than one per cent of their original range – down to about one million acres from 700 million acres.

Wolf Lake is the largest intact old-growth red pine forest left. The parcel of Crown land is located about 50 kilometres northeast of Sudbury and is bordered by Chiniguchi Waterway Provincial Park.

To date, trees as old as 300 years have been found.

The old growth forest is protected from logging, but open to mining and mineral exploration.

Read more... http://tinyurl.com/ERwolflake 

ART TO SUPPORT WOLF LAKE Ongoing campaign to protect the world's largest red pine forest Coalition hosts "pARTners for Wolf Lake Art Camp" – Aug. 14-17, 3013

The Wolf Lake Coalition hosted a 4-day camp for invited artists, August 14-17, at Wolf Lake. Fourteen painters, photographers and poets gathered to create works of art to be auctioned off in support of the Coalition’s campaign to see the world’s largest old-growth red pine forest protected.

“As an painter, I’ve always been drawn to the beauty of places like Wolf Lake,” said Liz Lott, one of the participating artists. “The fact that this incredible ecosystem is still threatened makes our work that much more important.”

In 1999, the Ontario government promised to protect the 300-year old Wolf Lake pines, located in the northeastern corner of the City of Greater Sudbury. The Wolf Lake Coalition calls on the Wynne government to honour the 14-year old promise to permanently protect Wolf Lake within the Chiniguchi Waterway Provincial Park. The Coalition is 30 dialogue

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made up of 30 local, provincial, and national organizations and businesses. "pARTners for Wolf Lake is an opportunity to bring the beauty of Wolf Lake to a wider audience in Northern Ontario and beyond," said Bob Olajos, spokesperson for the Wolf Lake Coalition. "I cannot wait to see the amazing work that these talented artists produce."

New research published in June in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, calls the Wolf Lake oldgrowth forest a, "scientifically irreplacable system."

Red pine once covered much of northeastern North America, including what is now downtown Sudbury. Extensive logging and mining have eliminated these forests on all but 1.2% of their original extent, making them a critically endangered ecosystem.

The Wolf Lake forest is more than triple the size of the next largest remnant. There are two mining leases and dozens of mining claims in the Wolf Lake forest.

CONTACT: Bob Olajos, Wolf Lake Coalition: 705-499-0692 VIDEOS: www.savewolflake.org/videos (Dr. Jane Goodall) AND: http://vimeo.com/65554322 [Photography

by Christoph Benfey, Rob Nelson, and Joel Sjaarda] MORE INFORMATION/MEDIA RELEASES www.savewolflake.org -- www.partnersforwolflake.ca Learn more about this exciting project the website or follow on Facebook.  FROM http://earthroots.org/

Ontario should stop logging of old-growth forest: [Editorial, in The Star, August 12th, 2013]

Temagami’s soaring forests are home to more than half the world’s old-growth red and white pine trees. It’s an impressive distinction, except that only a tiny fraction of the original growth still exists, leaving the trees — and the biodiversity they support — on the edge of extinction.

That precarious existence, exacerbated by the harsh winds or fires of extreme weather patterns, is further harmed when the Ontario government allows logging companies to remove the old growth, pines that have populated these forests for some 140 to 400 years.

Read in full. http://tinyurl.com/TSedTemagami  www.dialogue.ca

Annual Gathering in Temagami: September 14th, 2013

Over the weekend of September 14th, 2013 Alex Mathias, an Ojibway Elder, will host his annual Changing of the Seasons Ceremony to celebrate the fall equinox on his traditional family territory in the Temagami region of Ontario. On Saturday there will be a 'Changing of the Seasons' ceremony, a group potluck lunch, visits to Spirit Rock, and guided hikes through the old-growth forest. The guest speaker will be Joe Katt, Second Chief of the Temagami First Nation. All are welcome! If you have never been to Temagami and have always wanted to go, this is a great opportunity to experience the wilderness in a group setting. If you are interested in attending, for more information: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/ERtemaug14 [A minimum donation of $20 per adult is requested to help offset the costs of the event.] 

BOOK BY CANADIAN ECOLOGISTS:

Ontario’s Old-Growth Forests A Guidebook complete with history, ecology & maps, by Michael Henry, Peter Quinby “In Ontario we dwell among ancient living pillars that hold our deep histories and the breath of our distant futures. This is a wonderful book to get to know,” Sarah Harmer. Old-growth forests are ecological marvels.

Some of the trees that comprise them are thousands of years old, while others stretch a breathtaking ten storeys high. Incredibly, many of these wonders are just a daytrip away. Ontario’s Old-Growth Forests will help you discover these natural gems. Complete with spectacular full-colour photographs and maps that will get you there, expert forest ecologists Michael Henry and Peter Quinby uncover the fascinating history of these flourishing survivors while explaining the forest ecology that makes them so special.” [Quoted from the back cover] ISBN: 978-1-55041-580-3, published in 2010

by Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd., Markham ON 

Food: Who to trust about our food supply?

Tsiporah Grignon, Gabriola, BC

Recently I had the honour of attending a special convocation to honour the work of Dr. Vandana Shiva, seed-saving activist and advocate for sustainable farming.

She was awarded an Honorary Degree at the University of Victoria, in a packed hall of hundreds of admirers who gave her three standing ovations.

The program biography reads as follows: ‘Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, eco-feminist, philosopher, activist and author who has almost singlehandedly changed the way the world thinks about environmental sustainability and food security.’

In this light, many of us know her as a passionate spokesperson about the threat to our food supply by GMO crops. We have seen her be a fierce womanwarrior standing up to bullies versed in the biotechnology rhetoric that GMOs are the way to feed the world. I trust her motivations and her extensive knowledge as an academic scholar, teaching us, reminding us, that the fundamental link in our food supply is the humble seed. To this end, she is a down-toearth activist who has organized communities in her native India since 1987 to save seed. She knows first hand the results of GMO crops in India—in her words, www.dialogue.ca

the GM emperor has no clothes. Since the introduction of Monsanto’s GMO Bt cotton there, the price of its seed jumped 8,000%, while cotton production decreased by 40%. These extreme numbers help explain the farmer suicide epidemic in India that now numbers 275,000—because of crop failures and the insane debt trap of poor farmers forced to buy expensive seed every year from a seed monopoly. Monsanto profits grow as farmers’ debt grows.

I do not trust GMO proponents who appeared on the popular Dr. Oz television show, broadcast in 118 countries, in October 2012. I could barely contain my incredulity at the words spoken by both GMO advocates. Dr. Pamela Ronald, Professor of Plant Pathology and Chair of the Plant Genomics Program at the University of California, insisted that GMO foods use “the best farming practices and best science”. Plant geneticist Martina Newell-McGloughlin, who directs the Biotechnology Research and Education Program at all 10 University of California campuses, claimed that GMO agriculture is ‘the most sustainable productive system you can find out there’. I wonder about her definition of ‘sustainable’.

How is agriculture sustainable if a farmer must buy seed every year, as required by those farmers who plant Monsanto’s GMO seed? And what is sustainable about environmental degradation of water VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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sources and topsoil caused by poisonous chemicals and genetically altered seed? Perhaps ‘sustainable’ means sustaining the biotech companies!

In her lecture, Dr. Shiva provided the big picture.

Food is seen as just another commodity, to be produced for profit. Health or ecological balance hardly matters. We learned that five companies control 75% of the world’s seeds, a situation that threatens our fundamental freedoms. One company, Monsanto, produces 90% of GMO seed, the same company that brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, dioxins, and rBGH (bovine growth hormone)—all poisons. And good reasons not to trust Monsanto with the future of our food supply!

To hook farmers into buying their GMO seed, Monsanto persuaded farmers that its seed would decrease use of pesticides. However Dr. Michael Hansen, ecologist and Senior Researcher for Consumer Reports Magazine, told us on the same Dr. Oz show, that GMO crops have actually increased use of pesticides by 330 million pounds!

Big Biotech also promised increased crop yields. But after a few years of using ‘Roundup Ready’ seed (Monsanto seed with herbicide inside that would resist Monsanto’s Roundup brand herbicide) farmers noticed a decline in soil productivity and thus decreased yields. This is because glyphosate, the ingredient in Roundup that kills weeds and pests, weakens the plant by depriving it of vital minerals, and suppresses the plant’s immune system by killing beneficial soil bacteria. Conclusions from emeritus professor of plant pathology at Purdue University, Don Huber, who has studied glyphosate for over 20 years, show more plant diseases from glyphosate use because it stimulates the virulence of pathogens that kill plants.

And how has nature responded to the use of Roundup? Wherever it was used, the weakened plant must now compete with resistant strains of superweeds! Farmers have responded by doing ‘burndowns’ to try to kill the superweeds – several times a year they saturate their land with chemicals even stronger than Round-up, such as the deadly chemical Paraquat, banned in 32 countries, and Agent Orange, the famous defoliant used during the Vietnam war. Do you want these poisons in your food and in the soil that grows your food? Is it not absurd to refer to GMO agriculture as ‘sustainable’ or using the ‘best farming practices’?

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Logic and common sense will help us discern fact from fiction. For example, Dr. Oz pointed out that several European countries have banned GMOs from being grown within their borders. But still, his guest Dr. Ronald claimed a worldwide consensus among scientists that GMOs pose no health risk to humans!

Doesn’t this European ban indicate that some scientists have grave concerns that GMOs do pose health risks? She also stated that GMO technology is a ‘precise process’. I have read Seeds of Deception by researcher Jeffrey Smith, another guest on the same show, and I recall his description of how imprecise GMO technology is. Although not a scientist himself, Smith interviewed many scientists for his second book on GMOs, Genetic Roulette, who provided extensive scientific evidence on 65 adverse effects of GMO technology. Yet Dr. Ronald wants us to trust her statement that there hasn’t been ‘a single instance of harm to human health or to the environment from using GMO crops.’

While we were honouring Dr. Shiva, Monsanto was rejoicing from the previous day’s victory, when President Obama signed into law HR993, being called the Monsanto Protection Clause. It provides total immunity to Monsanto and other biotechnology companies from being prosecuted regardless of any adverse effects on our health their products may have. No safety reviews or environmental assessments can be done. No court can rule against the planting of GMO crops! In the words of Vandana Shiva, this new law signifies ‘the emergence of food fascism’.

GMO, she said, stands for God Move Over. For GMOs are an artificial creation — the plant’s DNA has been altered. Yet Monsanto’s Mission Statement reads: ‘There is no need for, or value in testing the safety of GM food in humans. So long as the introduced protein is determined safe, food from GM crops determined to be substantially equivalent is not expected to pose health risks.’ Monsanto seems to be saying: we know all there is to know, and WE are the ones doing the ‘determining’. Furthermore, Monsanto’s principle of ‘substantial equivalence’ makes no sense, since genes have been ‘modified’, and therefore are not equivalent to the original plant.

During her lecture, I was especially galvanized when Dr. Shiva said we are slaves if we continue the ‘superstition’ of obeying unjust laws, and that we owe it to the ‘richness of diversity, and integrity of the seed’  www.dialogue.ca

to ‘obey a higher law, to protect the rights of future generations’. It was the WTO (World Trade Organization) that globalized and imposed laws to enable companies to actually own seed. To help us change some of these unjust laws, she mentioned using an international instrument called the Biological Safety Protocol.

She reminded us that food security is too basic an issue to not be part of the solution. In an academic setting, Dr. Shiva urged those who study at universities to focus on deconstructing the myths surrounding cheap food — to instead nurture Food Security to give us our future.

The messages are dire. Our food supply has been poisoned, and the perpetrators have legal protection. We have to think about the big picture. Dr. Oz himself has recently come under fire for recommending red palm oil because of its ‘incomparable, powerful nutritional virtues,’ while failing to mention that rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia are devastated to make way for palm oil plantations. I suggest reading about these issues. Researchers and writers tell us that GMOs were allowed into our food supply through corruption and lies. Do an internet search of Jeffrey Smith and Vandana Shiva, and hear them talk.

This knowledge is necessary to give rise to people power. We know that experts and politicians can be bought, and that seekers of profit are irresponsible when they deceive us. Recently, successful people power aided through the alternative media forced Whole Foods to announce it would require GMO labels on all products by 2018, in response to being challenged about large letters outside their store advertising ‘Nothing artificial, ever’ while carrying many products with very unnatural GMO ingredients.

Every time we eat, it’s another opportunity to nourish the body. Mother Nature generously gave us the humble seed, which until recently, has been part of the Commons—her heritage and gift for all of us. May we always be grateful to centuries of farmers saving seed from year to year.

Tsiporah Grignon is a Gabriolan of 38 years, and considers herself “an old foodie”. She is a keen observer of our times, through looking at geo-politics, and through her study of Evolutionary Astrology, which offers in-depth insights into our potential as compassionate human beings.

Reprinted from the May/June edition of Synergy Magazine, link: www.synergymag.ca/food-learn-who-to-trust-about-ourfood-supply/ EDITOR’S NOTE: We were very saddened to hear that Synergy Magazine is ceasing publication, after 10 years of service to the community. Nicole Shaw & Dirk Becker are the dedicated volunteers who made Synergy magazine an Island treasure.

“Ideas Whose Time Has Come”

On Rubic’s Cube

David Foster, Port Perry ON

It was a clever invention in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. A hand held toy of boxes that you could twist into different relationships to boxes around them, yet it never fell apart. Well, that is the way our modern outlook on ‘Knowledge’ has become. We can twist the same basics into many different relationships, all claiming ‘truth’ and hope nothing falls apart. It is particularly annoying when we find people with big ambitions who fail to understand the basic building blocks of their own philosophy. And that is because few people will discuss it. Our school systems have taught us only one way to think… because that one way suits the Crown (or whatever other government is in power). To think in any other way is ‘revolutionary’.

Rubic’s cube had 9 boxes in 6 colours to a face. The challenge was to line up all the same coloured ones on www.dialogue.ca

one face of the cube while keeping all the other faces with their own different colour. Red, yellow, orange, green blue, white. Six basics. Arrange them anyway you like.

Do we have six basic philosophies we have to arrange for harmony? What might they be? At its heart, a philosophy is a belief system with a few logic rules imposed, and large areas of no logic at all. Those are the emotional choices we make, often in opposition to logic.

Should we put a Fluoride compound acid in our municipal drinking water? (Many communities have been doing it since the 1940s). Now we begin putting logical reasons on the faces of the Cube. ‘We add chlorine to kill harmful pathogens in water flowing through pipes… It dissipates as the water leaves the pipes. By the time we drink it, the chlorine has evaporated into the air. So we aren’t actually drinking chlorine, only water that was chlorinated at one time’.

But fluorides are different… they are far more  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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chemically active, and yet far harder to remove from water. Researchers discovered that human teeth exposed to certain fluoride compounds acquire a harder surface more able to resist acid decay in our mouths from the ordinary foods we eat.

Now we get into logic choices. The simple one is to conclude that all teeth should have fluoride added.

Can it be added by putting various fluoride compounds in the drinking water? How much is enough?

Apparent answer…Obviously when the rate of dental caries goes down. Great, Let’s do it! Line up all the boxes on one side as White. That was easy.

Hold on… there are other boxes to line up. What else happens when we add the fluoride compound? And how do we ensure it evaporates harmlessly once it is exposed to air as small amounts of chlorine do? Remember CFC’s in refrigeration coolants? Those were Chlorinated Fluorocarbon compounds… loose in the atmosphere. We discovered after 50 years that they were destroying the paper thin ozone layer that protects us from much harmful cosmic radiation. ‘Evaporation’ is not ‘disappear’. It simply means becoming invisible. Colour one cube red. Danger.

But it gets worse… depending on when a human gets exposure to fluoridated compounds, it can actually cause damage to both hard and soft human and animal tissue. Considerable damage. (No one really is set up to observe the damage since there is little interest in things that don’t work). And the questions remain as to how to keep the excess fluoride from doing other damage as in other Natural Systems. Does anything actually remove it from the environment, or are we

just adding poisons that will persist forever? We can’t tell… we don’t live forever.

In Nature, some minerals in combination with some acids will combine with loose fluorides, and render them inactive as mineral ores or gravel compounds.

But change the balance in fresh water flows, and when the water reaches the sea and salmon begin to sense the increased fluoride levels, they won’t go back up the river to breed, then we have Trouble. Wow! Blue coloured cubes to line up. Does it change with respect to the seasons, latitude, time of day? Better line up Orange and Green too. Can we afford all the investigative science to really understand what is happening?

Does the person with the political power to make decisions have access to honest science and the budget it requires to be thorough? Move the Yellow to its proper place.

Too much hard work… too expensive. Just sell it as a ‘good thing’. Dentists will go along… ‘Yes, some fluoride is good for some teeth at some stages in life.

And the dentist is the best qualified person to apply it…’ on the end of a Q-tip. Not dumped by the ton into the drinking water.

So even at the municipal level where Council or Staff are asked to make decisions, if you aren’t sure that earlier decisions were the right ones, get out your Rubic’s Cube and see just what does line up logically. If the parts don’t come together right, you need more information. Stall. Retreat. Not easy to do when all the others around you don’t even have a Rubic’s Cube to play with, to learn from. Now you at least know there is more to know.

David Foster, david.foster2@powergate.ca

Book: “Dirty Electricity” by Dr. Samuel Milham FROM THE WEBSITE: www.sammilham.com/

In his 2010 book, Dr. Milham warns that because of the recent proliferation of radio frequency radiation from cell phones and towers, terrestrial antennas, Wi-Fi and Wi-max systems, broadband internet over power lines, and personal electronic equipment, we may be facing a looming epidemic of morbidity and mortality. In Dirty Electricity, he reveals the steps we must take, personally and as a society, to coexist with this marvelous but dangerous technology.

When Thomas Edison began wiring New York City with a direct current electricity distribution system in the 1880s, he gave humankind the magic of electric light, heat, and power.

In the process, though, he inadvertently opened a Pandora’s Box of unimaginable illness and death. Dirty Electricity tells the story of Dr. Samuel Milham, the scientist who first alerted the world about the frightening link between occupational

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

Forwarded by Stephanie McDowall

exposure to electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic pollution, and human disease.

[The book] follows the twisting path that led to Dr. Milham’s discovery that most of the twentieth century diseases of civilization, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and suicide, are caused by electromagnetic field exposure.

Dr. Milham warns that because of the recent proliferation of radio frequency radiation from cell phones and towers, terrestrial antennas, Wi-Fi and Wi-max systems, broadband internet over power lines, and personal electronic equipment, we may be facing a looming epidemic of morbidity and mortality. In Dirty Electricity, he reveals the steps we must take, personally and as a society, to coexist with this marvelous but dangerous technology. See an interview & article by Dr. Mercola at: http://tinyurl.com/MERmilham  www.dialogue.ca

Electron Energy

“Your Health Matters”

Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., Strongsville OH

In the last issue of Dialogue, Dr Mercola, for whom I have a high respect, suggested that “electron deficiency might be a cause of chronic disease”. He also noted that “most of your biological processes are electrical”. I could not agree more, but Dr Mercola left that statement hanging.

He did not tell us how electrons are used in the marvelous mechanisms of energy synthesis, the nuts and bolts of our survival. There is increasing evidence that its failure is the cause of much, if not all, disease, since the natural defenses of the body require energy to perform their functions. The new science of epigenetics indicates that even our genes are responsive to diet and lifestyle.

The truth is that we are hybrids. We make chemical energy and transduce it to electrical energy and I want to give a simple explanation of this and why a correct diet is so vital. It is a fact that glucose is the main fuel and is required in large amounts for brain and nerve function. Well, regular readers of Dialogue know that I have indicated over and over again that sugar is dangerous, so how is this paradox to be explained? Fresh fruit contains fructose, a word that means “fruit sugar”. It is converted into glucose in the body and is then converted into a more complex molecule as glycogen, stored in muscles and liver. When glucose is needed for fuel it is leached out of storage in the amount needed. It is a little like a carburetor that was used in cars so that the cylinders were not drenched in fuel. We will see shortly why this is an important analogy. When sugar is extracted from a plant source and eaten in the many forms in which it is sold, it becomes a drug that signals a jolt of pleasure from the tongue to the brain, hence its addictive tendency. Our sugar source should only be as Mother Nature provided it, for the fiber that goes with it is of vital importance in its absorption and processing as fuel. There are also complex carbohydrates that occur in fruit and vegetables, but that is a different story.

When glucose is needed, perhaps because of beginning either mental or physical exercise, the glycowww.dialogue.ca

gen is taken out of storage under the influence of an enzyme and converted back to glucose. There is a disease where this enzyme is missing in a newborn infant. He develops a massively enlarged liver filled with glycogen. Because he cannot retrieve glucose from this store he suffers from life threatening episodes of hypoglycemia. This is why sugar is never found free in nature and using it as we do today overwhelms the natural processing to turn it into cellular fuel.

What happens to the blood glucose to create energy is a complex process. It goes through a series of biochemical changes that finally convert glucose to pyruvic acid. This is the eventual fuel that must drive the engines of our body and brain cells. It passes into a cellular “machine” called the citric acid cycle and this action requires the B group of vitamins. Thiamin (B1) is the most important of these since its activity is known to be overwhelmed in direct relationship to an excess of sugar. If glucose as fuel can be compared with gasoline, thiamin represents the spark plug. Too much gas in a car cylinder causes inefficient ignition and is known as “choking”. Glucose and thiamin have the same relationship in the body so that oxidation maintains its efficiency.

The citric acid cycle might be compared with a crank case in a car as It “rotates” in a series of sequential biochemical changes in a circle (hence cycle). Its function is to generate electrons. Just as Dr. Mercola states, electrons are now the “units of potential energy”. They have to be harvested and so Mother Nature gave us a molecule called an electron receptor, another vitamin. This conveys the electrons to a “machine” called the electron transfer chain (ETC).

All of this is occurring in the mitochondria whose structure is so minute that it can only be seen with an electron microscope. Mitochondria are the “engines” of our cells and as the electrons pass through the ETC, their energy is used to synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy “currency” of nearly all our cells. Energy is released from ATP by donation of its phosphate groups to other molecules.

Like a battery where chemicals produce electricity, all our physical and mental functions use ATP as  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 35

Electron Energy, contd. the major source of cellular energy. It is synthesized and used synchronously, according to whether we are in action or resting.

The electric organ of the electric eel (electrophorus electricus) is an adaptation of nerves that exist in the human body. Its ability to produce 500 volts of electrostatic electricity is because the adaptation has converted a neuromuscular junction into a condenser (the junction is a minute cavity into which the neurotransmitter is released from the nerve ending, thus connecting the nerve with an organ, e.g. muscle, that is then activated). Each of our own nerves releases a chemical substance, (one of many different neurotransmitters) into a neuromuscular junction. In the case of the eel the neurotransmitter used in the electric organ is the same one that many of our own nerves use. Although we do not know the details of how the chemical energy is transduced to electrostatic energy, our understanding of this function in the eel has provided important clues.

Our neuromuscular junctions generate electricity measured in microvolts because they lack the adaptation possessed by the eel but it expresses the “oneness and genius” of Mother Nature.

The neurotransmitter common to the eel’s electric organ and many of our own nerves is called acetyl choline and it is synthesized by using an acetyl group (carbon/hydrogen), derived from the citric acid cycle. Hence its important relationship with glucose. This is joined to choline, most of which has to come from our diet. From all of this, it should be clear that chemical and electric energy are both used to make our brains and bodies function. By capturing the electrons as I have described, their energy is used for cellular function. Just as Dr. Mercola stated, we can begin to understand the value of therapy like acupuncture, the use of magnets and other electric devices as well as appreciating how they can be used to provide information about bodily function. But we cannot live without food and water, so it must be clear that we create chemical energy from food and convert it to electrical energy for function. Since the “fuel” was here when we arrived on Earth, our food should be restricted to that supplied by Mother Nature. ~ Derrick Lonsdale, M.D. 36 dialogue

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P.S. Congratulations on the new format. The last issue was more variable with interest. I am selling my house and moving into an Independent Living community. I hope to continue my contributions since my computer will maintain its importance. Best wishes to you, Maurice and (of course) Penny.

– Derrick

AN ODE TO THE ELECTRONIC AGE Youth listens not to wisdom learned In years gone by too fast With little gained, too much is lost Of knowledge thus amassed For youthful vigor finds new ways To forge ahead and yearn For different ways to live our lives Thus—age begins to learn And I for one find this so sad That age is in decline For youth commands the years ahead Without a story line

FEAR Fear is the bondage of a haunted soul.

It dreads the night and fails to meet the day.

Conceived in sense of woe and nurtured yet In atmosphere continued thus, the child Becomes the victim.

The child is but the father of the man And raised in fear, he fears himself the more, Throughout his life, compelled to test himself, The sickness of his soul remains to prove To him the need.

Nor yet the end in sight, the stricken child Shall grow to reproduce in self same style.

A contribution to the fate of man In shape of offspring who have each their share Of numbing fear.

Derrick Lonsdale “Everything is connected to everything else.”

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

www.dialogue.ca

‘What Goes Around Comes Around…’

From Don Parker, Georgetown ON

As some of you know, I have done a great deal of traveling. During my many trips, I never once saw an American wearing the Stars and Stripes on their jackets or backpacks. On the other hand, I saw many Canadians, myself included, wearing our Maple Leaf; and I often saw Americans wearing our flag, too!

What bothers me is that with our present government's foreign policy, it will soon be unsafe for Canadians to travel wearing our Maple Leaf. I ask you to think very seriously for a moment. I ask you to think of yourself as a Libyan parent whose child has just been killed by a bomb dropped by a Canadian warplane. As your dead child lies motionless in your bereaving arms, you look up and can plainly see the Canadian Maple Leaf on the underside of the fighter as it swoops low overhead. Now I ask you to view the documentary about the U. S. in Vietnam. And again I ask you another question: Is

this the direction you want Canada to take as Harper steers us ever closer to U. S. policies?

I do not consider myself a religious person but I do know this: Whatever we put out in life will eventually come back to us.

Vaccines

I have just watched a documentary called, "Vaccine Nation" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iM-oYmLoIw ).

The link will also take you to many sites about this extremely important issue. The information contained there in should be in everyone's medicine cabinet, especially the parents of babies and toddlers. Another thing that I got from watching the doc is the similarity between the producers of these killer vaccines and the likes of Monsanto who produce genetically modified foods. In addition, where are our governments that are supposed to protect us from such horrors? Although this doc is based on the lives of Americans, it applies to Canada as well.

Monsanto LINK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsglbfZLc_0

- Don Parker [rs15@cogeco.ca] 

“That’s My Take On It”

My Nightmare - what do you think?

John Shadbolt, Acton ON

"Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics." – Voltaire (Memnon the Philosopher)

I had a dream, or should I say ‘nightmare’? I dreamt I was 65 years old, although I am only nine years old.

Unusual to be able to go into the future. This was my dream:… I was sixty plus years old, and really sick, I had cancer, arthritis and all the usual things that old folks get. Life was a living hell. The medics pumped me full of pills to cure me. Funny that I was not getting better.

Then my vision went back to the things I did today that might cause some of the problems, since I was a nine year old looking to make some sense out of all this.

I love ice cream. Looks good, tastes great. That cannot be anything to do with my sickness, can it? In my dream, I went to a number of places where they make it, and I look at the approvals by Health Canada. Then I decide to take a look at some of the ingredients used.

Some pretty weird stuff going on here – artificial colours and sweeteners are used, as well as something www.dialogue.ca

called carrageenan. So I asked my parents to help me research these good foodstuffs. They do have approvals from the government.

Then I was transported to a lovely lake to play in, swim and fish. Obviously nothing from here could harm me in my old age. But wait, in my dream I see all kinds of chemicals that are in the water. Pesticides, antibiotics, and something called fluoride. In my dream I see doctors from very important places saying how good fluoride is for you.

In my dream, I see food being grown, farmers working hard spraying, planting crops. All approved by government, so they cannot cause me to be so sick. Or can they? But then my parents came in, and said ‘look what we have found in our research. ‘It would seem that Health Canada was not doing its job. Some artificial colours can make you sick. All artificial sweeteners do make you sick. Carrageenan is a natural product that makes you sick. Fluoride is a really nasty one, as often this poison just sticks around in your body and, bit by bit, destroys you through cancer, joint problems, etc., etc. Apparently when given to kids Flouride makes them less intelligent.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 37

‘A new food called GMO has come onto the market. All approved by the government. But the research shows it does all kinds of nasty things to your body, even harming your blood as well as giving cancer to some people.’

I awoke from my dream in a cold sweat. What in the world is going on? What kind of future do I have?

Does not look at all good – but wait, perhaps I can change things around. After all I am still young.

And then I dozed off again – this time I was transported to watch Mr Rothbard writing – and it made an impression on me – are people and the government trying to kill me? Or just make my life miserable when I get old.

You decide. Wow, to hell with dreams that are nightmares.

Rothbard: "We must, therefore, emphasize that 'we' are not the government; the government is not 'us.' The government does not in any accurate sense 'represent' the majority of the people. But, even if it did, even if 70 percent of the people decided to murder the remaining 30 percent, this would still be murder and would not be voluntary suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority. No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that 'we are all part of one another,' must be permitted to obscure this basic fact." - Murray N. Rothbard, (19261995) Dean of the Austrian School of Economics [Source: Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays (Auburn: Mises Institute, 2000 [1974]), pp. 55-88]

So while I do not expect any doctors to change, I myself can. But in any case I would like to know what you think… Is my dream a way to save me from being a cripple in my old age? Ever wonder why old folks are getting sick? Not too hard to understand, is it?

You decide for yourself. I already have.

- John Shadbolt. (just dreaming) THEN I FOUND THE FOLLWING ARTICLE, a day after I wrote about my ‘dream’! Great minds think alike.

The Great American Genocide Daisy Luther, Activist Post

[JULY 3, 2013] We’ve reached the point that any person with

critical thinking skills can no longer deny that we are being deliberately poisoned. Nearly everything that is reasonably priced to eat or drink is actually toxic…people are actually being deceived into spending money to purchase the substances that will lead to disease and demise. A chemical warfare has been declared on us. […] LINK: www.activistpost.com/2013/07/thegreat-american-genocide.html (with active links, sources), about: Water, chlorine, ammonia, fluoride, food, GMOs, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, growth hormones, pharmaceuticals, vaccinations & more. 

Also from John Shadbolt: A VIDEO I JUST FOUND The Monsanto Video Revolt: One logical thought process, LINK: http://tinyurl.com/MVRlogical 

9/11 ‘False Flag’ – German Documentary After September 11th, 2001, the US was quick to launch attacks, first on Afghanistan and later, using falsified evidence, in Iraq. Doubts about the official version of the events of September 11th have continued to grow among both Americans and the International community.

The speculations that surfaced on the internet directly after the attacks were considered to be just wild conspiracy theories. Yet, the circumstantial evidence and even the substantial evidence, itself paints a clear picture.

This German-produced documentary lays out a coherent alternative story of the events of that day and leading up to that day, refuting the bogus "findings" of the 9/11 Commission Report, which needs to be re-opened ASAP, if we are to achieve the justice and the peace that we all seek. WATCH THE VIDEO: (about 73 mins): www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/24197.html 

The Fourth Phase of Water

DR. MERCOLA: “What you don’t know about water, and really should” Dr. Mercola, mercola.com – Aug. 18, 2013 [EXTRACT & LINK] Your body consists of over 99 percent water molecules, but the water in your cells is not regular water, but highly structured water with special properties There is a fourth phase of water, not H2O but H3O2, and can be called living water. It’s more viscous, dense, and alkaline than regular water; has a negative charge, & can hold energy, much like a battery, & deliver energy too

research scientists in the world when it comes to understanding the physics of water, and what it means to your health. Besides being a professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington, he’s also the founder and editor-in-chief of a scientific journal called Water, and has published many peer-reviewed scientific papers on this topic. He’s even received prestigious awards from the National Institutes of Health.

The key ingredient to create this highly structured water is light, i.e. electromagnetic energy, whether in the form of visible light, or infrared wavelengths, which we’re surrounded by all the time …

Dr. Pollack’s book, The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor, is a phenomenal read that is easy to understand even for the non-professional. It clearly explains the theory of the fourth phase of water, which is nothing short of ground-breaking. The fourth phase of water is, in a nutshell, living water. It’s referred to as EZ water—EZ standing for “exclusion zone”— which has a negative charge. This water can hold energy, much like a battery, and can deliver energy too. […]

Water is clearly one of the most important factors for your health—especially when you consider that your body actually consists of over 99 percent water molecules! I sincerely believe water is a really underappreciated part of the equation of optimal health. …

Dr. Gerald Pollack, who is one of the leading premier

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READ IN FULL ONLINE: LINK: http://tinyurl.com/MERezwater 

www.dialogue.ca

The Future is Staring Us in the Face. We Must Stop Looking Away.

Walter Cavendish, Parksville BC

As a civilization we're having enormous difficulty coming to grips with climate change in its full dimension and all of its aspects. Part of that is because, while it truly is a global problem, its impacts are not globally uniform and the impetus to deal with it even less so.

The scope of the problem poses its own problems.

Science tells us that even best efforts solutions won't really fix the problem for centuries. At three to four generations per century times three to four centuries, you get the idea. What reality is there in the notion of your family sixteen generations hence? Where is the return in making sacrifices today for benefits that won't be reaped for a century or two by people unknowable, unforeseeable?

It isn't easy for us to make the world better for civilization two or three centuries from now. It is, however, very easy to make the world a much worse, tougher and more dangerous place for them.

Much of the argument (no, there is no legitimate debate) over climate change is fundamentally flawed on both sides. That's because the argument is staged in a vacuum. It's a nice little intellectual exercise that is detached from reality.

Global warming is just part, albeit one of the major parts, of a matrix of problems that confront civilization. If we are going to achieve tangible improvements re global warming, they will come from our approach to the entire matrix of our challenges. Fortunately, I can rattle off a pretty comprehensive, albeit not exhaustive, list of these troubles.

1. Climate change and the associated impacts of severe weather events of increasing frequency and intensity; sustained and cyclical flooding and droughts and disruption of precipitation patterns vital to agriculture; polar ice loss and sea level rise resulting in coastal retreat, increased storm surge damage and sea water inundation of coastal freshwater resources; heat waves again of increasing frequency and intensity; the loss of biodiversity and species migration, including pests and disease.

2. Consumption challenges associated with increasing populations and per capita ecological footprints leading to overpopulation and population migration; desertification (the exhaustion of arable farmland and its transformation into desert); deforestation; the depletion of non-renewable resources; the exhaustion of www.dialogue.ca

renewable resources, especially the freshwater crisis and collapse of global fisheries; plus air, soil and water contamination of all sorts.

3. Security challenges of expanding dimensions including food insecurity, water insecurity, and inequality destabilizing nations and regions; the rise of failed states; religious fundamentalism and terrorism; regional arms races especially in south and east Asia; and nuclear proliferation.

This is the matrix, three tiers of challenges, inter-related to varying degrees and all of them civilizationally based. We pollute too much, we consume too much, we fight too much. This is fueled by the way we, as a species, are ordered – locally, nationally, globally.

We need to get off this carnival ride, even as it is increasing in speed. There are solutions but they tend to elicit the self-fulfilling prophetic "over my dead body" responses. If you insist.

The argument is well made by Tim Flannery in "Here on Earth" and others that mankind is at a epochal juncture at which, over the coming generation or two, we will choose a wonderful future for our species and the planet or the potential ruin of our civilization.

We can either decide to constitute our civilization to meet the circumstances that confront us that we cannot change, or we cling to the modes of organization that have brought us to this point and may lead to our destruction.

As an aside, one of the theories of why, in this vast universe with potentially billions of habitable, earthlike planets, we have not received any visitors, holds that civilizations inevitably evolve into instruments of self-destruction. It's an interesting theory and one that should not be lightly dismissed because, even though it is theoretical, it offers guidance into how we might ensure our own intelligent life doesn't self-extinguish.

If you make the focus, the priority of your policy and planning, the development and continuation of the best-possible civilization and subordinate everything else to that, then we can handily resolve each and every one of those three-tier challenges listed above.

Every one of them. If, however, we elect immediate self-interest as the paramount consideration, then we will, at best, approach these challenges in a haphazard or piecemeal manner in which case we probably will fail to solve any of them.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 39

A cultural solution. Thanks Alice Walker.

Mike Nickerson, Lanark ON

"This could be our revolution: To love what is plentiful as much as what is scarce."

- Alice Walker This quote has long inspired me. Way back, a friend who had spent two years in Thailand with CUSO, told me that on the fruit stands there, amongst all manner of well ripened tropical fruit, the fruit that was in demand and which fetched the highest price was the apple. Apples are scarce in the tropics.

Not knowing much about Alice Walker, I watched this interview when it appeared. At one point (12:55 min. in) she talks about a "Thousand Year Old Cherry Tree."

A potent reminder of the longterm potential of our remarkable, though presently-misguided, species.

LINK: www.nationofchange.org/poet-author-alicewalker-meets-inner-journey-global-activism-cushionroad-1369755209

The thousand year old cherry tree story resonates with my recent piece, "In the Interest of the Seventh Generation," below – and online at LINK: www.sustainwellbeing.net/seventh_generation.html

In the Interest of the Seventh Generation

"There is a tradition in some societies, whenever decisions are being made, to consider the interests of the next seven generations. For the modern world to do the same would mark our passage to maturity."

Making decisions in the interest of the Seventh Generation compels us to look beyond the next financial quarter, the next election cycle, indeed, beyond our own lives and even the lives of our children and grandchildren. It requires that we commit to the good of our species - long after we are forgotten.

Being human is a great privilege which is easy to take for granted. We are mistaken to assume the greatness of being human to be our own greatness. Our individuality is just a small presence carried by the awesome structure of being human. It has long been noted that we "stand on the shoulders of giants." This is true both intellectually and biologically.

None of us made the opposing thumb, or the circulatory system that enables a hundred trillion cells to cooperate in keeping our bodies alive and doing our bidding. We didn't create sight or hearing or any of 40 dialogue

VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

the other senses through which we are able to perceive the world. And our brain: who is responsible for the amazing capacity we have to remember details, to recognize patterns, to understand and speak words, and to imagine how to organize various materials into all manner of things? From where comes our capacity to love and to fear? All this potential comes free with birth, without our having to do anything. A vast collection of biological wonders accumulated over two and a half billion years!

There is a more recent but no less impressive list of wonders that we inherit from our evolving culture.

An individual who makes good use of these inherited abilities can take some credit. From within our human form great things can be accomplished. It is the role of individuals in every age to act to meet the problems and opportunities that we perceive in the world around us. Thank goodness for such individuality; we are the leading edge of adaptation as life proceeds through its third billion years.

When we make decisions in the interest of the seven generations, it is our inherited greatness that we seek to sustain. Among the problems facing today's humans is diminishing reserves of fossil fuel. As prices rise, increasingly vast fortunes drain steadily from communities to support drilling and processing. It could be that fossil fuels will be too expensive to use within the time it takes a baby to become a responsible parent. Perhaps, with fracking, deepsea drilling, arctic resources and seabed methane our dependence on carbon fuels can be stretched to serve another generation, less likely to a third, though the climate problems, economic stress and other collateral degradation would be formidable.

That leaves four generations still to consider before the interests of the seventh come into view. How do we pay respect to our parents and to the 7,000 other generations that came before us? Without all their efforts, we would not be able to enjoy the awesome privilege of being human upon this wonder-filled planet.

The next time you make a decision, consider all your relations.

For long-term well-being, Yours, Mike N. www.SustainWellBeing.net Sustainability Project - 7th Generation Initiative 2799 McDonalds Corners Rd., RR #3, Lanark, ON K0G 1K0 phone: (613) 482-1208; e-mail: sustain5@web.ca 

www.dialogue.ca

Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community – A Place For You

one, two, and three bedrooms that accommodate families along with seniors and singles of all ages.

The project was completed in September of 2009.

A special feature of Pacific Gardens is its inner atrium, a covered pedestrian street that connects all units to the Common House, which is at the heart of the community. As well as providing a common Cohousing is a particularly good form of housing area where people can meet and greet, the atrium for seniors and a ll generations - it is safe, environgives children a safe, dry place to play during our mentally-friendly, pedestrian-oriented, and physirainy season. The Common House has a wealth of cally designed to create a strong sense of commufacilities, including nity. You will find a large kitchen, a cohousing warm and dining/events room, welcoming places to live an intimate lounge in. There is none of the with a view of sense of isolation Mount Benson, a experienced in soundproof room conventional housing for music practice, developments. In a children’s play cohousing, everyone room and rooms for knows your name, but crafts, respects your privacy. woodworking, and So, what is cohousing? exercise.

Simply put, it is the Each resident of return to the best of The patio outside the common room of Pacific Gardens Pacific Gardens can small-town community, have his or her own creating neighbourhoods organic garden plot, and the vegetables from these that combine the independence of private dwellings gardens, along with the fruit from the heritage apple with the advantages of shared resources and comtrees and the berries that grow in abundance on the munity living. Residents own their own homes, but share in the common areas. The shared facilities and property, are harvested for the weekly potluck meals held in the central dining room. physical design support and sustain community connection.

To find out more about Pacific Gardens, go to our website at www.pacificgardens.ca , read In Canada, British Columbia is the centre of coour monthly newsletter The Bloomin’ News, housing development. Of the 23 completed or formor follow us on Facebook, or read our blog, ing cohousing communities in Canada, 15 are in http://mycohousingadventure.blogspot.ca/ B.C.; two of them right here on Vancouver Island, Creekside Commons in Courtenay, and Pacific If you would like to go on a tour of our beautiful Gardens Cohousing Community in Nanaimo. building, give us a call at 250-754-3060, or e-mail us at: joinus@pacificgardens.ca Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community is Nanaimo’s first cohousing project.

YOU WILL ENJOY KATHRYN’S ESSAY, Located on 4.37 acres of former farmland at 347 “Strange and beautiful ideas about cohousing,” Seventh St., its extensive green space includes natu- online, on their blog, at: http://tinyurl.com/PGcohousing1 ral flora and fauna, a seasonal pond and heritage STREET/MAILING ADDRESS: apple trees. The property is close to a park along the #312 – 347 Seventh Street salmon-bearing Chase River with wonderful views Nanaimo, Vancouver Island of Mount Benson. It has 25 strata title units with British Columbia V9R 1E3 

By Kathryn Hazel, Nanaimo BC

Have you ever wished you lived where you knew all your neighbours? Could get a ride from someone to the grocery store? Where the book club met just down the hall, and your yoga class was in the same building? Then cohousing may be for you!

www.dialogue.ca

VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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SASKATCHEWAN POLITICS

Whither Brad Wall?

by John F. Conway, Regina

Arguably Brad Wall has reached the pinnacle of his career as premier of Saskatchewan. In 2011, he made history with the largest popular vote victory in the province’s history (64%). His approval rating remains at that level, unprecedented for a premier in the midpoint of a second term. He gives the term Teflon Man a whole new meaning – none of the bad news, missteps, or foul-ups of his government sticks to him.

Granted, he could make more history by winning a third term in 2015, something the anti-NDP, free enterprise coalitions of Ross Thatcher and Grant Devine failed to deliver. He could stick around and try to win a fourth term in 2019, and then a fifth in 2023, becoming “the Tommy Douglas of the right,” finally replacing the CCF/NDP as the province’s natural governing party. He could then claim the title of the most successful premier in Saskatchewan history. But is it enough for Brad Wall? More importantly, perhaps, is it even possible?

Wall faces some serious problems, economic and political. And these problems are only going to get worse. On the economic front, Saskatchewan has an economy dependent on resource exports. The recent good economic times have lasted longer than usual, since world commodity prices for what Saskatchewan produces and exports have remained elevated, and demand continues to be strong. The world needs what Saskatchewan produces and exports – agricultural commodities, oil, potash, and uranium.

But resource prices are notoriously unstable, and demand can be volatile, as Wall has learned, with recent dips in prices and demand for oil and potash. The American oil market, which Canada assumed to be insatiable, is more competitive, prices have fallen due to market discounts. New recovery techniques and new discoveries suggest the U.S. could be self-sufficient in oil in a couple of decades. As oil prices fall, or spike up and down, the expensive tar sands oil becomes less profitable. Even if oil prices go up, it means export destinations paying hefty prices for oil will become less able to buy Saskatchewan’s other exports, like food and potash.

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This situation has led to cautious doldrums in the oil patch, as exploration and expansion projects are cancelled or delayed, and existing markets can’t take all the oil produced as quickly as in the past. Hence, the panicked push for new pipeline construction, regardless of the dangers to the environment, seen as necessary to find a release for the pent-up production potential by opening new markets quickly. But some energy experts insist the proposed pipelines, even if all are approved and built, will not be enough if the American market becomes increasingly competitive, pushing continental prices down.

There is a similar situation in potash. Key customers, like India and China, have negotiated hefty price reductions as prices and demand fell from previous high levels, and a number of expansion projects have been cancelled or delayed. Meanwhile potential new potash producers in other countries are eyeing the good future prospects of potash in the world market. All this means that Saskatchewan may face problems of over capacity and hence over production in a more competitive potash market, pushing prices down and challenging Canada in previously guaranteed markets.

Up to now, Wall has benefitted from boom times in Saskatchewan as resource prices and demand remained high… until the recent problems in potash and oil cut sharply into the resource rents flowing into provincial coffers. Wall has claimed credit for the good news economy, as any incumbent politician would, and this is central to his political success. For now, the recent glitches in oil and potash have not dampened expert projections that the Saskatchewan economy will continue strong in coming years. But that could end if a perfect storm occurs in the oil and potash sectors, which could happen given recent warning clouds. Resource prices can crash over night, as Saskatchewan learned many times in the past. And politicians who happen to be unlucky enough to be in office when the good times end pay the political price…Premiers Anderson in 1934, Thatcher in 1971, Blakeney in 1982, and Devine in 1991.

The question for Brad Wall is – do you want to stay around for the inevitable crash? Or do you want to get out, making a dignified exit with a record of remark able success? www.dialogue.ca

Wall’s political problems are beginning to surface as well. His insistence on repeatedly attacking trade unions, expected by his virulently anti-labour right-wing political base, courts future disaster. Saskatchewan has enjoyed labour peace for many years. That peace is being severely tested by Wall’s attacks. At some point, organized labour will get angry enough to unite, organize and go on the offensive. As a social and political force, organized labour has proven to be formidable in the past, contributing to the defeats of Patterson in 1944, Thatcher in 1971, Blakeney in 1982, and Devine in 1991, and to Romanow’s undignified exit from politics after the 1999 nurses’ strike.

Wall is playing with fire. The teachers are angry. The Federation of Labour, and its affiliates, are angry. The nurses could be next. The public is getting worried about piecemeal privatization, and the push back is beginning (for example, the recent quick collection of 24,000 signatures in Regina to block the P3 water treatment plant). If these social forces organize, focus their energy, and systematically go after the Wall government, the premier will be in serious trouble. The signs are there. It is beginning.

But Wall’s political problems are also internal to his party and broader right-wing base. Some elements on the right of his political coalition view Wall as a neoliberal with a bleeding heart. He is not tough enough for the harsh austerity measures necessary to get the economy chugging. He is too slow pushing the privatization file. He is a bit of a big spender on social programs. Wall can easily fend off these internal critics, as long as he is successful and dominates the polls. But at the same time, he has to give them something, and such gestures risk arousing his external enemies. It’s a tough balancing act – giving the far right enough to keep

them quiet and on side, but not so much that it arouses his external foes to organize and become aggressive.

There are rumours that Wall is contemplating plunging into federal politics – hence his call for abolition of the Senate and his silly rant about Trudeau’s speaking fees. Other rumours suggest Harper is thinking of stepping down after the next election. Can Wall make the jump into federal politics? Does he have a chance of winning the leadership of the federal Tories?

The record suggests it is risky for premiers to make the leap, especially a bid for a leadership job. Douglas was most successful, stepping down after five election victories, retiring as premier to lead the federal NDP in 1961. But he languished as a third party leader in the House of Commons. Jimmy Gardiner went from Premier to a 22 year career as federal minister of agriculture. His stab at the Liberal leadership was thwarted by St. Laurent in 1948. In 1958 Gardiner lost his seat in the Diefenbaker sweep. Dunning went from Premier to join the Liberal cabinet of King in 1926, and went on a successful career as a Liberal cabinet minister. The record is mixed, not a source of great hope for Wall.

My advice to Wall? Harper won’t quit until he is defeated. When that happens his coalition between the West, rural Canada and suburban Ontario will implode. In the meantime, do you want to be a trained seal and seat warmer for the Harper government? Stay the course in Saskatchewan. A premier has real power. An MP or cabinet minister in the Harper government has none. Besides if you leave, the NDP will surely win, and your political friends, especially the business lobby, would never forgive you.

J. F. Conway is Professor and Chair, Dept. of Sociology & Social Studies, Univ. of Regina; heis author of ‘The West: The History of a Region in Confederation’ and ‘Debts to Pay: The Future of Federalism in Quebec.’

Column: Quebec Notebook

Franco-Quebec teen exposes English Canada’s apologist fraud

By Peter Sauvé, Montreal Qc

As contemptible as they are, one almost has to feel sorry these days for Canada’s official forces of political correctness, whose job it is to pretend that the national disunity created by Quebec is way overblown, if it even exists at all.

You know them -- the politicos, bureaucrats, media hams and social-networking plants who toil like ants www.dialogue.ca

to trick Canadians into believing that whatever bad news coming out of Quebec on the language front is either just “an isolated incident,” or is due to acts by “angryphones” or “the extremists on both sides.”

To veteran observers not seeking someone’s paid favours, however, such tired expressions from the correctoid community and the upwardly-ambitious give them away instantly.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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QUEBEC NOTEBOOK, contd.

For one, there clearly are no “extremists on both sides” in Quebec. Indeed, the utter lack of extremism on the English side is one critical reason why they’ve lost their key language rights, and are typically treated in law and elsewhere as second-class citizens. Even Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update host Seth Meyers poignantly alluded to this in his gala at Montreal’s Place des Arts during the recent Just For Laughs comedy festival, when he quipped that there “are two languages spoken in Montreal – French, and really reluctant English!”

And “angryphones?” Tossing that one around is another slick, politically-correct ruse to deflect attention from the discriminator to the discriminatee, so to speak. It’s a relatively effective update to the ruse of shooting the messenger, as no self-respecting Canadian wants to be called “angry.” So instead of focusing on the real issue – the obsessively belligerent nature of French Quebec’s ethnocentric nationalism and the anger its progressive abuses rightly engender among Canadians – its victims sheepishly let politically-correct federalist pacifiers stifle them. And status-quo Canada lives another day.

But as any brilliant New York comedian, founding father or credible mental health professional would attest, there’s something very wrong with you if you’re not angry over what Quebec has been getting away with, supported by your Canadian governments, since the mid-1960s.

So, why would anyone feel anything but contempt for Canada’s dishonest coterie of official and unofficial Quebec apologists these days?

Because now, even some francophones are speaking out – angrily speaking out – about the exact same abuses angry anglophones have been complaining about for decades. One of them is even a separatist.

And in obsessively-correct Canada, nothing could better expose the moral bankruptcy of English Canada’s Quebec-apologists than seeing francophones line up with angry anglos.

Of course, such budding alliances are what Canada’s political establishment has dreamed of all along. Morally impotent and unwilling to fight Quebec’s anti-English abuses, Canada’s politicians threw Canadian language rights in Quebec to the wolves, pretended the wolf pack was threatened with extinction, and silently hoped the 44 dialogue

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pack would be sated and the problem go away.

And oh, if some wolves did Ottawa’s job for them by turning on their more voracious confreres, so much the better. But don’t expect any help from Ottawa. When it comes to Quebec’s language abuses, ALL of Canada’s federalist parties lead only from behind. Indeed, when the Liberals saw the feeding frenzy in the forest, they talked only about the beautiful foliage. And the NDP? They continue to tell all the creatures in the forest that healthy wolves need to eat as much as they can.

Montreal lawyer Brent Tyler is still defending French parents whose children are prevented from attending English school by Bill 101. Ottawa’s a no-show again – it’s busy funding French privileges in English Canada.

You’re likely familiar with the many recent clashes between the Office Quebecoise de la Langue Francaise (OQLF) and non-French businesses. Last spring, Elie Bendavid, a Moroccan immigrant whose mothertongue is French, complained the language police are unfairly targeting his family-run Montreal furniture store over its sign, Kif-Kif Import, insisting the word “Import” is illegal.

The kicker here is that Bendavid also teaches at the French-language Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Further, a linguist he knows argues it’s definitely a legitimate French word.

But Quebec’s language cops say no, and Bendavid faces a fine of up to $20,000 if he doesn’t knuckle under the iron fist of poor, threatened Quebec. Ironically, as the Globe and Mail notes, Bendavid says he supports Bill 101, "but the way they're applying it makes me ill at ease. It’s a question of justice.”

Oh, so there’s a just and feel-good way to apply a discriminatory law whose sole aim is to linguistically cleanse what is, and has always been, THE most bilingual region in all of Canada? Bendavid would be right at home in any of Canada’s major federal parties!

Indignant francophones (if one can believe such selfidentifications) occasionally post comments appending online reports, like this one on the Globe’s website: “I am a French Canadian from Quebec City. One day I am afraid I will have to leave Quebec...for good.

Being force-fed French by the language police is one of the reasons my roots have been severed ... This society went from blindly following the abusive rules of the Catholic Church to a new religion fad: language fanaticism. Embarrassing."  www.dialogue.ca

Most notably of late, Quebec bureaucrats at the Registraire des Entreprises rejected 17-year-old Gatineau, QC native Xavier Menard’s bid to register his graphic design company name, Wellarc, because it “sounds too English.” Take note, English-Canadian media apologists -- the franco-nationalist obsession is spreading from English signs to include English-sounding sounds – just as all the “angryphones” predicted.

Menard, a right-of-centre separatist and bilingual francophone, is fed up with Quebec’s anti-English agenda, and said so on YouTube. “I’m supposed to be happy because the French language is protected against evil Anglophone capitalists – like me. Really!” he told the National Post. He also gets it on Bill 101’s deleterious effect on Quebec’s economy: “What’s the advantage to Quebecers of being able to speak French in the workplace if they don’t even have a workplace to go to?”

If any of you Quebec apologists in the CBC, Toronto Star, CFRB 1010 Radio, Montreal Gazette, federal NDP, Liberal Party of Canada, federal Conservative

party – not to mention the plethora of pseudojournalistic, left-wing websites out there – can enlighten Menard as to the error of his ways, pull your feet out of your mouths and step up now.

Send your words of wisdom to dialogue@dialogue.ca, and pull no punches in excoriating this bilingual francophone separatist for his abject heresies against the Quebec-nationalist lies and dogma you’ve all been foisting upon unsuspecting Canadians for decades.

Lecture unabashedly this francophone Quebec separatist about his threatened language and culture, because you obviously know much more about it than he does.

As for Menard’s enlightened brand of separatism – one that seemingly doesn’t vilify English (oh, if it but were so) – English Quebecers should ask themselves one question: compared to your federal government’s chronic refusal to defend your civil rights in Quebec, how bad could such a separate Quebec really be?

– Peter Sauvé, Montreal The Quebec Notebook welcomes your comments and questions. E-mail: petersauve@yahoo.ca 

“Observations from Lithuania”

You / Vous / Tu: Stop!

by KR Slade

In the 1990's, in the city of Québec, there was a big political-correctness flap: because the stop-signs said, "STOP" ! Everything is supposed to Ken Slade be in French here; including signs.

So, the government began changing the thousands of stop-signs to "ARRÊT", which happens to be a noun (as with, 'a bus stop'). Some people argued that it should be the imperative verb (as in, ‘Stop that!’), which would be "ARRÊTEZ" (notice the little accent mark above the first ‘e’), second-person plural because it is also the 'formal' and polite form. Other people wanted "ARRÊTE" (still that same little accent mark), because it is the second person singular verb, and more personable and friendly, while still being a command; but this was overruled as being unacceptable for people whom you ‘may not know well’ and who ‘might just be your social superiors.’

The government started to put both the English and one or another of the French words on the same signs; because people would be confused with any new, single word. Politics found it easy to ignore the sentiment, “It's the octagon-shape and red-colour of the sign, stupid!” But people did become more confusedwww.dialogue.ca

-because with two words there was more to read.

And, with two words both had to be a smaller print size. There was also the problem that the law required that French must be given priority over any other language, which meant that the French must be on top and ‘naturally’ should be of larger size than the English, so that the ‘STOP’ became rather difficult to read, although it was obvious that there was something written underneath, with those smaller letters.

A friendly local said, “Arrête is French for ‘a place where you can stop’ and the ‘STOP’ was an acronym for ‘Si Ton Opinion Permet’, which means ‘if you want to’.” Then, in Paris, the French Academy (which is empowered seemingly by the governments of all French-speaking places with the duty and right of making all French-language decisions) came to the rescue. They decreed that: "Stop", although an English word, was also a French word since its usage had become so prevalent in French culture that everybody who spoke French knew what it meant and was in fact using the word in their French. There was the little fact that all of the Stop signs in France said, “STOP”.

The Québec government was embarrassed because Québec, the capital of French in North America,  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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was now becoming, depending on one’s point of view, either more-French-than-the-French-French, or, in violation of ‘Official French’. So, now the signs can say 'STOP ', although a few of the old bastardized ones are still around, outside of the capitol city. The problem is still: not everyone always stops. It's because the prevalent culture everywhere is to drive like Europeans on an autobahn. There are no stop signs on an autobahn; that’s why it’s called an autobahn.

There is here a good opportunity to modify unacceptable roadway behaviour and find some undeniable positive value in Québec language politics. . . . . .

There are two French-to-French dictionaries that have withstood the passing of long time. I don’t have the one with the pretty pictures and that is popular with students, because I like the other one--that gives the etymology (derivation/history) of a word. And, while ‘Robert’ is an English name, it is equally French.

Here is a translation of what this French-to-French dictionary tells about the French word ‘stop’ . . .

Stop came into the French language in 1792. Guy de Maupassant used it one hundred years later. In the early 20th century ‘stop’ was used by Jules Romains, and in the mid-20th century by Pierre Daninos, notably the author of “Snobissimo”.

The word ‘stop-over’ entered the French language in only 1975. The word ‘stoppage’ is French since 1893. The verb ‘stopper’ entered French in 1841 and was used by Pierre Louys in the early 20th century, by Martin (Robert) du Gard (Nobel Prize in literature 1937), and Albert Camus in the mid-20th century.

The transitive verb ‘stopper’ is found in French in 1893. The older forms are ‘estauper’ (in 1780), ‘restauper’ (in 1730), and ‘estoper’ is Ancient French (up to 1,000 years ago) used by Georges Duhamel in the first-half of the 20th century. The nouns ‘stoppeur’ and feminine version ‘stoppeuse’ are found in French in 1893; and in 1940 became used in football.

In total, there are ninety-three (93) French word forms derived from ‘stop’, of which only seven (7) look anything like any possible English word.

As to the use of the French word in street traffic management, Stop is defined in the following literal translation: “Roadway sign obliging every vehicle to stop (itself) at an intersection and to give the passing to the right and to the left.” But then at the very end of the explanation there is a remark notation remark: “In Canada, one says ‘arrêt’.”

- Ken Slade, Vilnius (Lithuania) All Rights Reserved [2013]: Ken-Russell Slade, B.S., M.Ed., M.R.E., J.D E-mail: kenmunications@gmail.com 

MORE “OFFICIAL LANAGUAGE” FIASCOS IN CANADA

The OCOL is violating the Federal Identity Policy/Program (FIP) Kim Lian McConnell, Canadians for Language Fairness, Ottawa

June 10, 13: As an organization with the mandate to educate and alert the Canadian public about the failure of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages (OCOL) to respect and comply with Federal guidelines as set out in the Federal Identity Policy/Program (FIP), we have written to the PM’s office to alert them to the failure of the OCOL to do so.

However, it is not enough for Canadians for Language Fairness to complain – it is imperative that each of our readers do the same. The Federal government cannot ignore a large number of complaints about any issue of public interest so this is a plea to send a message to your MP, as he/she is responsible to listen to you and your concerns. If he/she wants your support, you have to give them reasons why you are unhappy. My strategy is to refrain from financial support to the party of your choice; and if anyone wants a copy of a letter that 46 dialogue

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they can tailor to their own needs, I can offer a sample. As a Conservative Party supporter, I receive a lot of requests for donations and I’ve made it a practice of saving all the donation envelopes & using them to mail my letter explaining why they will not get any more financial support from my husband & me. They may not miss the few hundred dollars from us but if all our Conservative readers were to send a similar message to all requests for donation, it will soon get their attention.

I would like to thank Robert Birks who took the initiative of writing to the OCOL to complain about the fact that the FIP had been violated. Whether this is the fault of the OCOL or the PM’s Office, is not our primary concern. Our concern is that the staff at the OCOL is ignorant of the FIP’s guidelines. Address your letter to the PM’s office as well as the office of your MP. It is bad enough that the English-speaking majority is being given a raw deal, with the  www.dialogue.ca

Official Languages Act putting the French language & culture on a pedestal, but to do so while also ignoring the Federal government guidelines is a disgrace and you should demand an explanation.

Visit to J. V. Andrew, June 2013 A team made up of Don Smith, E. Little, Elaine Smith & Kim McConnell drove down to Kitchener, Ontario (round trip of 1111 kms) to visit Ret. Lt. Cmdr. Of the Canadian Royal Navy, J.V. Andrew.

Jock Andrew is the unsung hero who tried so many years ago to warn Canadians about the Official Languages Act but few Canadians listened. Mr. Andrew wrote several books on the topic. Among them are these books: Bilingual today, French tomorrow: Trudeau's master plan and how it can be stopped, BMG Pub., 1977 - 137 pages; Backdoor Bilingualism: Davis's Sell-out of Ontario and Its National Consequences, BMG Pub., 1979, 198 pages; and ENOUGH, published in 1988.

For his efforts, Mr. Andrew has been vilified and some of his books were burnt in a warehouse fire. It is over 35 years ago that he started out on his mission against the OLA and we are very lucky to be able to meet him to hear his story. We hope to include his story in a video which we plan to offer to

any Canadian who has woken up to this tragedy and want to have a record of the battle waged by this man who predicted what would happen to Canada if the Official Languages Act was allowed to continue on its relentless march across the country.

The DVD will include videos made of the various efforts by Canadians to battle the disastrous effects of this policy which has essentially created 3rd class status for the majority English-speaking Canadians, unable to advance in their positions in all government departments or disallowed to even apply for entry level positions. In some parts of Ontario and New Brunswick, even the private sector is being pressured to hire only bilingual citizens.

Don Smith is putting the DVD together and Canadians for Language Fairness will use it as a fundraiser. For $25.00, you get a copy of the DVD and the first 100 orders will also get a copy of J.V. Andrew’s book, “Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow”.

Send your cheque or money order, made out to CLF & mail to: Canadians for Language Fairness P.O. Box 40111, Bank & Hunt Club Postal Outlet 2515 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON, K1V 0W8 Website: http://languagefairness.net/ - Kim McConnell [ kimlian@sympatico.ca ] 

A change of pace…from ‘officialdom’ to ‘summertime’…

Ramblings

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION Randy Vancourt, Toronto

If anyone ever tells you they intend to buy a house, pack, move, and get married all within one month, send them to me. I will be happy to set them straight.

On June 14th my fiancé and I took possession of our new house; on June 27th we packed up our respective former homes and moved way across town; on July 12th we got married. All this happened as we both continued working and undertook renovations (don’t get me started on installing the kitchen floor). Between the real estate agents, banks, lawyers, mortgage companies and movers, I think the least stressful part of the entire summer was our actual wedding day. www.dialogue.ca

My fate was sealed back in 2009 when I was asked to run a singing class with a voice teacher. The moment we met I knew she was something special, although it seemed to take her a little longer to realize what a treasure I was.

We got engaged last Christmas Eve 2012. On Boxing Day we drove to Quebec, just in time for that province to be hit with the biggest winter storm in 40 years, breaking the previous record from 1971.

Now some might call this a bad omen, but I chose to see it as the weather gods’ way of celebrating our engagement. Clearly I don’t put much stock in portents because we then chose July 12th as our wedding day. As any Irishman can attest, The Glorious Twelfth, or Orangemen’s Day, is historically one of the most contentious dates in the calendar.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Again I chose to put things in a positive light by considering this the ideal opportunity to encourage peace between Protestants (me) and Catholics (my fiancé).

We chose a beautiful Victorian era building in Toronto for both the wedding and reception. Thankfully this time the weather gods favoured us with a gorgeous, sunny day; not too hot so we could take lots of photos out in the gardens without any relatives suffering sunstroke.

I work in music and comedy and my wife is a classically trained opera singer; between us we have an abundance of amazing friends who are professional singers, actors, musicians, writers and comedians. We corralled many of them to be part of our wedding celebration, starting with our church accompanist who has been a composer and producer for everyone from Tommy Hunter to Roger Whittaker to The Muppets.

It was a beautiful ceremony full of wonderful music and the entire thing seemed to fly by in an instant, marred only by the fact that, much to the priest’s amusement, I accidentally signed the Marriage Register on the line for “Officiant.”

The reception was a joyous event, culminating in an hour of outstanding entertainment provided by more of our cherished friends. In our speech we joked that we were happy we knew so many entertainers who were willing to work in exchange for food and an open bar. My only regret that day was that my dad could not be with us to share in the celebration.

My father (Larry Vaincourt) wrote for this publication for two decades. His humourous stories and poems seemed to resonate with readers everywhere, a fact of which I am reminded each time I deal with another reprint request for his work from around the world. Most recently I have enjoyed numerous phone conversations with American singing legend Connie Francis, who has just recorded a spoken word version of my father’s well-known poem “Just A Common Soldier (A Soldier Died Today).”

Although my fiancé never had the chance to meet my dad, she knew how much he meant to me so I was extremely touched when she suggested that we choose one of his poems to be read at our reception.

While browsing through some of his published collections she came upon a work that seemed ideal.

The words so moved her that she immediately burst into tears… which would have been less awkward if she hadn’t been riding the bus at the time.

The moment she showed it to me I knew it was the perfect way to make my dad a part of our special day. It only seemed fitting to ask another dear friend, himself a popular columnist, to read the poem at our reception. Between his moving rendition and the subsequent fiddle duet performed by one of my childhood friends and my new father-in-law, we knew Dad was right there with us. Now if only he had been able to actually taste a piece of our wedding cake… ~ Randy Vancourt, www.randyvancourt.com

A DVICE T O A S ON

By A. Lawrence Vaincourt You say you need no one, that you are a man and can make it quite well on your own, But you have a long route ahead of you, son – much too far to travel alone.

From the home of your parents to one of your own, and the knowledge that you are a man, To the freedom you have from the love you have known, is sometimes a terrible span.

No man is an island, so goes the old saw, and those who have lived know it’s true, And life’s heavy burdens, which now weigh you down, are lighter, divided by two.

If it’s only a hand you can clasp in the dark, or a warm, loving voice on the phone, Which says you’re important and that you have worth, 48 dialogue

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it surely beats being alone.

Don’t punish yourself for mistakes in your past, don’t say you can never go home, But look for that someone who’ll share your long path, for it’s too lonesome walking alone.

The star that you follow, you may never reach, but you’ll know at life’s end that you tried; And that on your way, you’d the love and support of the person who walked by your side.

So don’t try to do it, son, all on your own, for that path should be trodden by two; And somewhere out there is a person who’ll share – that someone who’s just right for you.  www.dialogue.ca

“Reminiscence and Revelation”

Remembering Thomas… and other tales Mike Harvey, Langley BC

“Mistake causes heartbreak.” Let me explain why. Thomas was let out at 8 p.m. but didn’t return by the time his owners were ready for bed. Thomas was a much beloved ginger coloured cat, aged two, owned by pals of mine.

They were unable to sleep and kept going to the door to call his Mike Harvey name. No Thomas. No sleep. Just anguish in the thought that perhaps a coyote had grabbed him. The search the following morning proved this scenario to be correct. A small piece of fur was found in the woods.

Tears flowed freely as longing and anguish filled their hearts. ‘Why had they let him out?’ became the dominant theme of their sorrow. But the phone rang. It was from a neighbour who knew Thomas well. “He’s in our shed,” explained a happy voice.

Thomas’s owners practically ran to the shed with utter joy as relief fled their souls. There he was! It looked like Thomas and was content to be enfolded by loving arms. They could hardly believe their good fortune. Then home quickly to excitedly examine their treasure. Identical coat and appearance until they noticed to their dismay he had a blotch of white fur whereas Thomas had none. Joy and relief vanished as cruel reality crushed their temporary joy.

Further examination of the cat found a tattoo on his ear. A call to the Langley Animal Protection Society office and the immediate reply that they would contact his owner at once; the feelings of loss and despair returning with a vengeance greatly enhanced.

The feeling of the loss is still there, of course. But the call to LAPS and the advice of a neighbour culled an idea which was this; there must be cats that need a good home.

Thomas is still missed, of course. But occupying his place in the household now are two young male kittens that are almost identical in their ‘Thomas like’ fur coats. The gloom of loss is being replaced by new love between the kittens and their owners. I won’t divulge their names but they will always be connected to Thomas as living, loving memorials. www.dialogue.ca

Perplexing problem of a young man When I was very young I had a perplexing problem.

Simply put it was this; what is the purpose of that little bag attached close to my penis. Naturally, I knew what the penis was used for, because when I had to pee all I had to do was get it out and point it in the desired direction.

The other thing that hung about nearby was a question that I wished to find a solution to. This was something I dare not ask anyone, as matters like this were not spoken about in polite society. The only reason the little bag was attached, I figured, was to store the urine that I passed a number of times a day.

I experimented by gently feeling the bag just before, during and after I had relieved myself. To my astonishment, there was not the slightest variation in size, as it remained constant. I tried this experiment a number of times, again noting that there was no fluctuation in diameter during or after the entire procedure.

I eventually discovered that one’s waste fluid was stored in our bladders. I also was told in breathless pros by older lads the true function of our testicles. I was on the ball, the mystery was solved!

Wikileaks / Willyleaks…!!

I trust my closely linked complaint of Willyleaks is not of the same magnitude as the world-wide reports of Wikileaks. I note, however, that Willyleaks has reached the television screen where some tough looking hombre tells us to buy leak proof products to “guard your manhood.”

This complaint is with us, from birth through old age, with the very young and the very old suffering most. When we are young, it is accepted and within our type of civilization for loving parents to affix the diapers that will curtail the flow.

No doubt, this same procedure is employed on elders, as well, when they are no longer competent to look after themselves. One of the mitigating factors of aging is that subjects once taboo can be brought out in a humorous way and laughed at by those so afflicted.

So, if you see a stain on someone’s character (or trousers) accept the fact in the knowledge that one day you could probably be in the same leaky boat yourself.  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Soft & Hard Edges Column – Jim Taylor

Practice makes perfect -- but only if you do it!

By Jim Taylor, Okanagan Centre BC

“What are you going to write your column about this week?” my physiotherapist asked.

“You,” I replied.

Laura Snyder and I both write columns for a local newspaper. But we only discovered that connection after I began taking physiotherapy from her to restore full movement to my damaged elbow.

Laura has given me a number of exercises. She expects me to do them regularly. No, not just regularly.

Not once or twice a day. Five times a day would be better, like Muslims called to prayer. But ‘constantly’ would be the ideal. Deliberately extending that elbow as far as it will go while I’m walking. Rotating my wrist under the table during dinner. Struggling to bend my elbow enough to comb my hair.

To be effective, exercises can’t be an optional extra, an add-on to life. They have to be integrated. Into everything. All day. Every day.

MORE THAN MERE KNOWLEDGE

Unfortunately, I have tended to believe that if I know how to do something, I don’t need to actually do it.

But knowing how is not enough to train muscles and joints. I know how to play the violin. I know what the notes on a page signify. I know where my fingers should go to create those notes. I understand the markings for bow position. But my attempts to create those flowing, liquid cascades of melody sound more like a cat fight than Fritz Kreisler.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours of practice -- and more -- to achieve mastery of any craft. Others argue for at least 1,000 hours practice just to achieve competence.

For years, I belonged to an organization called Faith at Work. Every meeting closed with some form of group prayer. Sometimes we did “oneword” prayers -- each person saying a single word that summarized their feeling. Sometimes we tossed a ball of yarn, randomly, across a circle, until everyone had had an opportunity to express a thought.

Sometimes we passed a rock hand to hand, imagining what that rock might say to us if it could speak.

Each new variation opened up possibilities.

Each new form of prayer broke the shackles of too50 dialogue

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familiar routines.

Or could have, if I had chosen to practice it.

Regularly. Constantly.

I didn’t. After all, once I knew how, why should I bother practicing?

24 HOURS A DAY

Now I realize that without practice, nothing changes. The kind of person I want to be requires constant practice. Not just one or twice a day. Not even five times a day. But integrated into every element of my life.

I can’t be grateful occasionally. I have to practice being grateful constantly.

I can’t turn on compassion when the situations arise. I have to be compassionate all the time.

Random acts of kindness make a useful slogan, but random acts are not enough. I have to practice kindness daily.

I can only develop friendliness, generosity, trustworthiness, on a full-time basis. Anything less is like an alcoholic claiming he can stay sober and get sloshed at the same time.

My elbow’s physical health is teaching me some important lessons about my spiritual health.

Copyright © 2012 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations

and study groups encouraged; all other rights reserved. Please encourage your friends to subscribe to these columns. To send comments or to subscribe, write to: jimt@quixotic.ca 

From Sounds Wonderful, Chris James, Australia

Singing is Good For You!

From ‘Frontiers in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience’ we have some great news! ‘Choir singing connects respiration and heart activity. Coupling of heart rate variability to respiration is called ‘Respiratory sinus arrhythmia.’ This coupling has a subjective as well as a biologically soothing effect, and it is beneficial for cardiovascular function.’

Yes its true…. Singing together is good for you. :-) And look at the wording in the BBC article ... "Our hearts beating as one" – and "Sing from the heart" [www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23230411 ] “Choir singers synchronise their heartbeats” And of course this is just the tip of the iceberg, as science is now able to confirm what many of us have been feeling all along, and those who have given over their natural ability to feel what is going on in their heart and body to "evidence-based" proof are presented with this as a scientific fact. 

www.dialogue.ca

“Nike Mike”

“The Fifth Columnist”

Michael Neilly, Dunrobin ON

I am standing at the bottom of Dead Man’s Hill. I only call it that since I started running again.

It’s been 25 years since I ran seriously. 25 years of watching television and fine dining have taken their toll for sure. The personal heart monitor strapped across my chest is a bit uncomfortable. I look down at my wrist watchmonitor that is indicating about 145 beats per minute – at least what I think it means. Already my breathing is laboured.

I head up the hill. The road has long ago been abandoned by the township and it is seriously eroded, little more than a gravel path. There is a solid canopy of tress arching over it. Half way up I am imagining turning around and heading home, or walking up, I’m virtually walking anyway, or just stopping to catch my breath. Still, it’s cooler in the shade and I tell myself it’ll be over, one way or another, in a few minutes.

25 years of neglect claw me down. My legs are like lead. My breathing, once laboured, is now gasping and I see that my heart rate has climbed to over 170, the danger zone for someone my age. Being a typical male, I regard this as a nuisance, like asking someone for directions. Calves aching, head buzz“Singing” continued… So the way we sing has an effect on us. Then we also need to consider the very words we sing, how we sing, how the music is composed, if the music we listen to is designed to engender an emotional response – all these facets have a powerful effect on our body, central nervous system, heart, brain and our physical and emotional wellbeing… In my experience any group of people, in under an hour, can have this life transforming experience of "our hearts singing as one" as the BBC so eloquently wrote. A lot of this is measurable now, and some of it is not.

Well, not yet! But it is there to be felt. And it is now time to honour this innate knowing that we can all experience so simply and easily. And, if we choose, we can also experience the profound affect that music/sound is having on us, and even the affect of the tone and content of the words we speak and listen to – all the time. We do not have to wait for science to substantiate what we can know right now as an undeniable truth…

From: http://www.chrisjames.net  www.dialogue.ca

ing, every muscle complaining, I reach the top.

There is a curious, burning sensation in my arms right at the wrist. Hmm. Today I am running with my daughter, who is 30 years my junior. As we head up, she kindly paces me, but I notice she is lifting her legs high, almost running on the spot. At the top of the hill she says that she’s breathing hard, too, but I notice she has no difficulty carrying on a conversation.

It takes everything I’ve got to keep up with her as we run along the brow of the hill, slightly downhill now and I still can’t converse normally due to the my lack of lung capacity. We’ve come by now in a big circle and there it is once again, Dead Man’s Hill.

I had told my wife about Dead Man’s Hill, how I was testing myself by running up it, and it wasn’t long before we had mortgage insurance. I just call it The Hill now, or a hill, and sometimes omit it from the conversation entirely: It just causes unnecessary concern.

Up we go the second time, and my daughter asks if it’s okay to run at her own pace. She’s being so kind. I gasp a ‘Sure’ and she lights up the afterburners, striding up the hill like a gazelle, mixing my metaphors as I go. She announces that she’s going to do it two more times and I smile to myself.

I am at home now. The heart rate monitor announces that my heart rate is below 100, but I’m still reeling from the run. My head is burning and I’m drenched with sweat, which is running into my eyes. I’m sitting in the phony Muskoka chair facing the road and there’s still no sign of her. Later she tells me that she runs with athletes and “really pushes herself”. I believe it.

I once ran five to seven miles a day but that was when people actually asked you if you needed a lift when they saw somebody running down the road. I still recall running with my Dad and it’s a great memory.

There’s no denying that 25 years has passed. And I’m kidding myself if I think I could do this again. My daughter asks me if I want to run with her tomorrow, but curiously I find myself too busy with the tax preparations. Still, Dead Man’s Hill beckons. dialogue always welcome, contact me at: fifth_columnist@magma.ca  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 51

A LITTLE COMFORT

“Stirring The Soup”

Marie Gaudet, Edmonton AB

I started researching a zapper today. Or, to be perfectly accurate, a personal protection device. Not necessarily to use it, but just to give me a sense of security and confidence when trying to talk sense into, for example, inane former renters with chips on their shoulders trying to bully me into reimbursing a damage deposit that, for all intents and purposes, they no longer have a legal right to… or other such people like that there.

I’ve been advertising a rental property on Kijiji for several years and, for the most part, have been satisfied with the quality of responses. Not so much lately, though. Kijiji seems to be attracting a lot of eerie people recently who are causing havoc for us law-abiding citizens trying to market a product. Besides my own experiences, just recently a fellow trying to sell a car was abducted (in his own car) from Edmonton and only managed to flee after a harrowing ride in the trunk (of his own car) all the way to Calgary. Talk about adding insult to injury! And we’ve all heard about poor Tim Bosma from Ontario who also went on a test drive with two men supposedly interested in buying his truck – and the horrifying end to that story.

Besides these Kijiji-linked crimes, an elderly gentleman in Edmonton was minding his own business and gardening in his own back yard a short time ago and was attacked randomly, severely beaten and robbed.

Pretty bad when you can’t even enjoy yourself in your own backyard. There have also been other, similar random muggings, beatings and killings of late.

Thus the dawn of my ponderings about zappers. It is a well-known fact that crime happens -- especially here in Canada’s murder capital, where I live -- and most victims of violent attacks are women. Consequently, smart women will do what they can to protect themselves, to assure our security and safety. We need to learn how to become our own bodyguards -- that or hire a real one to shadow us 24/7. The question is… how do we find what is the best fit for us to protect ourselves?

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Oh sure, I could sign up for a martial arts class if my body could still contort that way. Actually, in my mind, that would be the best way. Because not only could you actually protect yourself if need be, but just the knowledge that you could, would be enough to give you that confidence in your step, no matter where you were. And sometimes, that’s enough to deter the coward who would attack you just because he thinks you’re alone and weak. However, martial arts is not an option for many older folk, who are often thought of as the easiest targets around. Neither is running away. Or hand-to-hand combat.

Your keys sticking out through your fingers though, could do some damage if required. If I was in my home, I have easy access to weapons of mass destruction right here in my kitchen, up to and including a rolling pin and a pan of my frozen lasagna. Unfortunately, we don’t have the privilege of choosing our attack site.

We’ve all heard of the generic types of responses such as striking upwards on the nose with the flat of your hand; or using your elbows, head, knees or feet to help in your self-defense. You could jump on their back (with me, that in itself would be debilitating), scream into their ears, bite their earlobes, stick your fingers in their eyes. I assume that, with proper motivation and the adrenaline rushing through my veins, I could probably rely on any or all of these, assuming I wasn’t too petrified to remember them at the moment.

Despite that though, I would rather not have to attempt any of the above. Wouldn’t it be so much simpler to have a device on you that would do the work for you? But there are so many to choose from! Some seem incredibly violent (stun guns and batons, even tasers -- although with the taser, at least you wouldn’t have to ask the assailant to come a little closer before using it; you’d just have to be a good shot).

Some seem impractical (pepper spray, mace and tear gas, which you’d have to fumble through your purse to find before using anyway) and certainly, at least for me, firearms of any kind are out of the question.

But others sound like they could be quite useful, like the personal alarm keychain which activates a 115 Decibel alarm with a pull of the cord. Or my favorite, the lipstick stun gun ( www.womenonguard.com/-strse407/lipstick-stun-gun/Detail.bok ) and no, you wouldn’t  www.dialogue.ca

have to rifle through your purse to find it, as you can have it attached to you by a wrist strap). There are even stun guns that look like cell phones, so as to keep the element of surprise on your side. So, there are all sorts of wondrous things out there for someone like me who sometimes has to deal with difficult people and wants to bring a little comfort along, just in case… my own little pocket Jet Li,* as it were.

Ah, but there’s a rub… Both tasers and pepper spray are classified as prohibited weapons in Canada (http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98462/FullText.html/ ) and possession of either will land

you in severe doo-doo (as compared to the doo-doo you’ll be sitting in, if you don’t arm yourself).

So, what’s a Canadian woman supposed to do? Are we to count on our intuition not to lead us astray and into the path of some antagonist or other? That’s becoming more and more difficult to do these days, what with road rage, bullying, harassment, stalking, rape and all sorts of other violations becoming so customary that we don’t even question them but simply accept them into our world. But I DO question why we aren’t allowed to protect ourselves in the manner of our choice.

I suppose only time will tell how many people need to be hurt before we are allowed to defend ourselves.

Meanwhile though, here are a couple of really good tips to keep you ladies safe out there:

 Pepper spray may be illegal to buy in this country but you can legally make up your own: 2 ounces of curry powder + 2 ounces of pepper in half-pint of hot water.

Put into a spray bottle and keep it handy;  A sock filled with 2 or 3 golf balls (keep near your bed);  Empty a bag of marbles on the window ledge of basement windows. If anyone tries to enter this way, the racket of the marbles falling will alert you in time to set off your security alarm and flee.  Get a home security alarm.

Not necessarily in that order.

Other helpful tips on how to protect yourself and your home without the use of a firearm can be found at: www.securityandsafety.co.uk/main2.htm and www.expertsecuritytips.com/how-to-protectyour-personal-residence/ .

Keep safe, my friends.

Marie Gaudet, Edmonton P.S. I was sorry to hear that there will be fewer Dialogue magazines in the future, however I think this was a really wise decision. Good for you guys for trying different things so as to keep the magazine going (and keep the rest of us talking/writing)! Your work is very much appreciated. * Jet Li (Li Lianjie) is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and wushu champion.

Laughter & ‘Lightenment From Erik Anderson: Biology Test… worth an A+ Students in an advanced Biology class were taking their mid-term exam. The last question was: " Name seven advantages of Mother's Milk. " The question was worth 70 points or none at all.

One student, in particular, was hard put to think of seven advantages. However, he wrote: 1) It is perfect formula for the child.

2) It provides immunity against several diseases.

3) It is always the right temperature.

4) It is inexpensive.

5) It bonds the child to mother, and vice versa.

6) It is always available as needed.

And then the student was stuck. Finally, in desperation, just before the bell rang indicating the end of the test, he wrote: 7) It comes in two attractive containers and it’s high enough off the ground where the cat can't get it.

From Don Parker: OBSERVATION ABOUT BALLS The sport of choice for the urban poor is BASKETBALL. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is BOWLING. The sport of choice for front-line workers is FOOTBALL. The sport of choice for supervisors is BASEBALL. The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS. And...

The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is GOLF. THE AMAZING CONCLUSION: The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become. There must be a boat load of people in Ottawa playing marbles.  From Don Parker: A Lesson from the Weather All of us could take a lesson from the weather.

It pays no attention to criticism. 

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing!!” www.dialogue.ca

VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 53

“Hannah’s Hobbies”

My Hair and I Went to Punta Cana Dorothy Hannah, Lacolle QC

Towards the end of the summer last year, my daughter-in-law, JoAnne, surprised me by asking me if I would like to go somewhere warm for a week in the month of November. After I got over my surprise at her question, and not being foolish, I said I’d love to. She asked me for suggestions about where we should go, but I reminded her that I was useless when it came to planning trips, and I would leave it up to her. I was game, no matter where we went.

It took JoAnne a while to arrange her time off from work and to decide our destination, but the results were exciting. We were to go to an all inclusive resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for the last week of November. I couldn’t wait. We were going to be three, because JoAnne’s friend, Francine, was joining us.

The flight went perfectly, good weather, good movie on the plane and we arrived on schedule. JoAnne and Francine did all the hard work, lifting luggage and boosting me into buses or overgrown golf carts, whenever necessary. Travelling isn’t always easy when you are a senior, senior citizen, so any help is appreciated.

One of the first things I noticed was how cheerful and good natured the people were. Not just the staff when dealing with the guests, but their general attitude about everything. You could hear them joking and just plain being nice to each other while they went about their duties and everyone gave you a big smile and a cheerful Hola, Spanish for hello, I was told. I didn’t know my white hair was going to be an asset until we went to the dining room for our first dinner. My white hair, walking cane and I were barely in the door when a grinning young giant put his arm around my shoulders, hugged me to him and said “Hola, Mama.” We were escorted to a table and wonderfully fussed over,

and that was the way it went. Everywhere I was greeted as ‘Mama’! And my original greeter used to do a little shimmy dance whenever he saw me, with the biggest grin all over his face while he practically yelled ‘Hola Mama!’ Punta Cana was definitely a young people’s resort so I began to think my white hair was a novelty. I did meet one other lady with grey hair and she told me she was being called ‘Mama’ and liked it, as I did.

JoAnne and Francine began to notice the maids and staff in the halls commenting on my hair as we would pass them. We came to the conclusion that Dominicans, as they called themselves, didn’t develop white hair. Grizzled maybe, but not white, so that was the cause of all the attention and comments about mine.

The whole hair story became very funny, especially the day JoAnne took me shopping to a very touristy market. Everywhere it was ‘Mama’ when people tried to sell me something, but it became hilarious after I entered one of the little boutiques. Three young female staff members were very helpful, but at the same time seemed to be lurking and were actually starting to make me feel hemmed in. Finally one of them mentioned my hair and that did it. I was told it was beautiful, it was pretty, they loved it and so on, but then I had to giggle when one girl asked if it was real!

That was bad enough, but when another young lady asked if she could touch it, I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Trying not to laugh hysterically and embarrass the poor girl, I said I didn’t mind. By now JoAnne had joined our little group to see what the commotion was all about and could hardly contain herself, while I stood there and these three girls took turns gently touching my hair, all the time exclaiming over its softness. It was all very flattering, I guess. But to be honest, I felt like somebody’s pet poodle while I stood there being patted on the head. An odd experience to say the least. 

More Laughter & ‘Lightenment

Bada Bing! - from the UK (from John McCullough) 1. The Grim Reaper came for me last night, and I beat him off with a vacuum cleaner. Talk about Dyson with death.

2. My daughter asked me for a pet spider for her birthday, so I went to our local pet shop and they were £70!!!

Blow this, I thought, I can get one cheaper off the web.

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3. Murphy says to Paddy, "What ya talkin’ into an envelope for?" Paddy says, "I'm sending a voicemail, ya thick sod!"

4. An Asian fellow has moved in next door. He has travelled the world, swum with sharks, wrestled bears and climbed the highest mountain. It came as no surprise to learn his name was Bindair Dundat.  www.dialogue.ca

Fran’s Kitchen From Fran Masseau Tyler, Lacolle QC

Sorry, folks, missed the last issue as I was under the weather. Now I am back, with many recipes to make up!

I am a great fan of crock-pots; think you all know that by now! I have a seven quart oval one that I use most of the time. Food is so tender, today I made pork chops, they were delicious, only thing I cooked them too long, were the ordinary, not the thick ones, 5 hours on low would have been enough. So I will start by giving you this recipe; it’s so easy.

CROCK-POT ITALIAN PORK CHOPS You will need: pork chops ( thick chops work best ) 1 egg 1-2 cups water or broth vegetable oil 1 cup Italian bread crumbs mixed with ½ cup parmesan cheese.

Directions: First dip pork chops in l egg beaten (or 2 if many chops).

Then cover with breadcrumb/cheese mixture. Brown in oil, both sides. Put pork chops on bottom of crock-pot. You can overlap them if you want more than four. Add one or two cups water or broth over chops. Cook 4 to 5 hours on high or 8 hours on low for thick chops. Delicious!

Here is another crock-pot recipe I think you will enjoy!

CROCKPOT BALSMIC CHICKEN Combine the following 5 ingredients in a small bowl: l tsp garlic powder l tsp dried basil ½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper 2 tsp dried minced onion Take 8 boneless-skinless chicken thighs (or 4 thighs and 4 chicken breasts). Spread the spice mixture over chicken on both sides. Set aside.

Pour olive oil and garlic on the bottom of the crock-pot.

Place chicken on top. Pour balsamic vinegar over the chicken.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Sprinkle fresh parsley over the chicken after cooked.

There are so many recipes that you can put in the oven that do better in a crockpot. I make a great beef stew with dumplings. (have to have dumplings or I don't like it!)

Now I have a recipe that is perfect to go with the chicken….

Food for thought: May there be just enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset www.dialogue.ca

BAKED POTATO SALAD

You will need: 8 medium potatoes, washed and cut into bite size pieces (you can leave the peel on); l cup sour cream, ½ cup Miracle Whip, a bunch green onions (chopped), ½-1 cup crumbled bacon, 2 cups of shredded cheese, salt & pepper to taste.

Directions: Cover potatoes with water and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Check them at 10 minutes and every few minutes after that; you don't want them over cooked or they will become mushy. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again. Put them in a large bowl and place in the fridge.

In an other bowl, mix: cup sour cream & Miracle Whip together; add to the potatoes with chopped green onions, 3/4 of the crumbled bacon and l cup of shredded cheese, salt & pepper to taste.

Top with the other cup of shredded cheese & bacon and serve. You can add some green onions on top just for fun. Enjoy! Keep refrigerated until use.

DOUGHNUT-TASTING CUPCAKES In a bowl, mix 1/3 cup oil, 3/4 cup sugar, l egg, 3/4 cup milk; add 1-1/3 cup flour, 1½ tsp baking powder, l tsp each, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Bake in a 350F oven, check for doneness around 20 minutes.

In a small bowl, melt enough butter to dip cupcakes as soon as they come out of the oven, then dip them into a sugar and cinnamon mixture to your taste. Delicious. I always make a double recipe, some to freeze.

Last but not least I have a recipe for strawberry jam without the strawberries. Love to tease people when I tell them there are no strawberries. Made it the first time on Sept. 16, 1991!

MOCK ‘RASPBERRY’ OR ‘ STRAWBERRY’ JAM Cook briskly for 20 minutes:- 4 cups red or green tomatoes (the season is ripe); Blend in blender with 4 cups sugar. Add 2 small or one large package of Raspberry or Strawberry Jello.

Mix well and pour into hot glasses or jars. Keep in refrigerator. Can’t tell the difference! Still have two small jars in the fridge.

Thanks Maurice and Janet, I am doing very well now.

Have a beautiful vegetable and flower garden; that was what was missing in my life, I am happy now.

Love Frances [ franskitchen74@gmail.com ]  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

dialogue 55

Personocratia’s Path Seduction and Monogamy Sexuality is a biological process that leads to reproduction and gives birth to a physical body. This body can then be used by a soul as a vehicle designed to interact with the material world. Nature has associated an orgasm program to sexuality in mammalian animals, to insure an abundant supply of physical bodies for evolving souls. Since copulation monopolises much time and energy, nature usually limits its use to a specific age and time of the year. During this critical time, an animal devotes all of its energy to the survival of the species.

The rest of the year, individual survival prevails. This is what humanity has experienced for centuries.

Modern human beings spend more time copulating than any other mammal. Their rutting period lasts the whole year and fills several needs besides that of reproduction. For example, it serves as a tool for the domination of one individual over another. Since the mind controls lust with great difficulty, human sex has become the source of many lies. One such lie is seduction, and the other is monogamy.

THE LIES OF SEDUCTION A human being is an animal with an advanced mind that she uses mostly to fill her needs. Their satisfaction creates an automatic expansion of her vital body. Typically, sex is what brings on orgasm, the greatest vital expansion available to a normal human being. A flesh-and-bone partner is the most efficient way to reach this state. To catch a ‘prey’, one uses clothing, tricks, and behaviours meant to fool the other person. This is called seduction, the art of deception used to sexually attract another person.

Feminine Seduction – An adult woman constantly lies about her appearance by modifying it to mislead another person about the state of her physical body. She dyes her hair, hides her wrinkles, follows diets, wears special clothing to look thinner, uses breast implants, Botox, liposuction, etc. She wants to look younger. She knows that men are instinctively attracted to young women because these have more chances of producing strong, healthy offspring than older ones. Of course, this is mostly unconscious. Instinctively, a woman awakes the sex urge in men by sending signs of fertility. She uses age-old tricks that are inscribed inside her DNA. For example, she wears high heels to accentuate her bum waddle.

She exposes her breasts (the bigger, the better), which remind men of buttocks. (Mammalian males mount females from the back). Red lips (lipstick) imitate a swollen vulva, an indication of fecundity. Red nails on her fingers and toes make these 56 dialogue

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look like excited penises. As large eyes with dilated pupils are signs of sexual interest, she makes them appear bigger with eye shadow, mascara, and false eyelashes. Unfortunately, toxic cosmetics get absorbed directly through her skin, while her feet, ankles, and back suffer from wearing high heels. No pain, no gain!

Masculine Seduction – Remember that human beings are herd animals and that dominant males get to copulate with the most promising females. The way a man dresses automatically shows his dominance. The broad horizontal lines of sailors and prisoners symbolise a reduced libido, whereas clothes with vertical lines (recalling an erect penis) and wide shoulders (strong, muscular body) indicate dominant males. The traditional tie takes the shape of a swollen penis with an exposed glans. Such looks attract women that are in search of a dominant white sheep. On the contrary, comfortable clothes with an open collar are typical of a man-child, a dominated white sheep with little social ambition who is ready to submit to a dominant womanmother. Some men will attract with their rebellious black sheep look, adorned with piercings, tattoos, and hair (beard, dreadlocks, ponytail). A man can also be classified according to his choice of vehicles: convertible car = seducer; Jeep = sportsman; hybrid car = eco-freak; sedan = rich professional; motorcycle = adventurous; pick-up truck = farmer/hunter. It holds true every time!

THE LIES OF MONOGAMY All mammals are polygamous – except wolves. As for humanity, it was made up of small bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers for 95 % of its existence. Polygyny (many women for a single man, typical of patriarchy) or polyandry (several men for a single woman, typical of matriarchy) was the norm.

In both cases, the whole tribe would share in the education of children and the care of the elderly.

The idea of a lifelong monogamous couple was born with agriculture. Cultivating the land and domesticating animals stimulated the desire to own them. As property was passed on directly to descendants, men wanted to guarantee the legitimacy of their heirs. They invented a brilliant concept – lifelong monogamy. Later called “marriage”, this practice was encouraged by all major religions – Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.  www.dialogue.ca

Marriage is a buy-sell agreement between two families in order to make sacred (Church) and legal (State) a double prostitution. Once the wedding cake is consumed and the union consummated, all that remains is a business partnership in which two associates consent to communal possessions with a precise inventory – children, buildings, businesses, animals.

The contract holds invisible, tacit clauses: To keep her husband, a wife must remain attractive and always agree to have sex with him (but never with other men), except when she has a good reason – pregnancy, birthing, menstruation, illness, headache, etc. In order to copulate regularly, a husband must take charge of the family – money, babies, house, furniture, restaurants, jewels, holidays, etc. He must never forget his wedding anniversary and never lose his job. A wife takes care of ‘small’ jobs – cooking, cleaning, mothering, buying, washing, schooling, family celebrations, gifts, budget, etc. Usually, a husband meets the costs of these activities. A husband takes care of ‘big’ jobs – construction, car maintenance, house repairs, garbage, snow removal, lawn mowing, painting, tool care, tax return forms, investments, etc. Usually, his wife oversees these jobs.

Most couples modify this basic contract. This is possible as long as the dominant/dominated equilibrium is maintained. Any change must correspond to a fair and valuable consideration. If he refuses to do certain jobs, she is forced to do them, but crosses off her list certain obligations. Each black mark against one partner allows the other to be freed from a particular clause.

For example, if he does not fix sinks but cooks well, she will be

happy to pay for a plumber. If he snores loudly, she will sleep in a separate room and often refuse sex. If she wants to ask a favour, she will accumulate “blow-job Brownie points” in advance. Anything is possible, as long as the I-give-you-and-you-give-me equilibrium is maintained. If a fluctuation occurs, the level on the marriage scale must be quickly brought back to zero.

THE NEW LIE For the past 40 years, the edifice of monogamy has been crumbling in all Western countries. The media, along with State laws, now encourage ‘working’ women, free love, feminism, divorce, and homosexuality. They even promote teen moms, offer juicy family allowances, easy-to-get student loans, and subsidised day-care centres. In fact, single mothers who work or attend school bring about the end of the nuclear family. We are being led towards an omnipotent parent-State and test-tube babies, the elite’s long-term purpose. Simultaneously, seduction and sex are rampant everywhere, even in children. We are being told that sex is a healthy and necessary part of human behaviour. Yet, this is what keeps us imprisoned in animality. The time has come to free ourselves from this now obsolete need to seduce and reproduce. Let us change our behaviour, in order to physically express who we really are: unlimited and immortal beings!

Personocratia* Source: Personocratia’s booklet “FAMILY, towards… Communion of Spirit”.

Info: www.personocratia.com Videos: www.dianedares.com * Personocratia: The person who knows that she is the Supreme Creatrix incarnated in a body and who acts as such in her daily life. 

On his deathbed, prominent psychiatrist admits he helped INVENT “ADHD” (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) as a disease LINK:www.naturalnews.com/041607_psychiatry_ADHD_ fake_diseases.html/ Inge Hanle’s added comment: This article is an essential eye-opener for most people who have dutifully followed the advice and mandated direction of “the experts’ in matters concerning the “mental health” of their children, and themselves. There is a mountain of money tied to a (diagnostic) “label’. The sad reality is that Big Pharma determines and controls medical practice in North America. Most worrisome is the fact that much of accepted “medical science” is completely fraudulent, especially in the area of psychiatry which has no “authentic science” as its foundation. It is a dangerous quicksand that is sucking in and destroying the lives of millions of unsuspecting, trusting victims. This fraud is becoming more and more difficult to counter since Big www.dialogue.ca

Pharma, the Psychiatric Association and Government are all working in concert, perpetuating what is essentially a gigantic medical fraud, with Big Pharma conducting for maximum milking/fleecing potential for maximizing profits.

Our children must be protected - and it is informed citizens and parents (not the experts) who will have to draw a line in the sand – and DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. No more sacrificing our children at the altar of a medical fraud. It is highly recommended that you watch the documentaries The Marketing of Madness and Making a Killing. These two documentaries spell it out the devastating fraud in detail. LINKS: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/marketing-of-madnessare-we-all-insane/ - and http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/making-a-killing-theuntold-story-of-psychotropic-drugging/  VOL. 27 NO. 1, AUTUMN 2013

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Contributors in Andersen, Erik, BC (from)….. 53 Arney, Jeremy, BC……….... 07 Barlow, Maude, COC….….. 08 Bell, J. Molly, BC……………. 26 Cdns. for Justice-Peace-ME 06 Cdns. for Lang. Fairness(Ad) 46 Cdn. Health Coalition, ON… 08 Cavendish, Walter, BC……. 39 Christopher, David, BC…… 23 Clayton, James, BC………. 04 Conway, John F., SK……… 42 Council of Canadians…..….. 24 Earthroots.org……………… 30 ForbiddenKnowledgeTV 13,38 Foster, David, ON…………. 33 Gaudet, Marie, AB………… 52 Ghis and Mado, QC……….. 56 Global Research, QC…..….. 25 Green Party (Federal)….….. 28 Grignon, Tsiporah, BC…….. 31 Hanle, Inge, BC (cdsapi)…. 57

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Hannah, Dorothy, QC……… 54 Hanson, Matt, AB………….. 17 Harrington, Bob BC………... 14 Harvey, Mike, BC...………… 49 Hazel, Kathryn, BC………… 41 Henry, Michael, ON……….. 31

Hupacasath First Nation 59 James, Chris, AU (extract) 50-51 Lévesque, Julie, QC………. 25 Lonsdale, Derrick, US…...35-36 Luther, Daisy, Activist Post… 38 Masseau Tyler, Fran, QC….. 55 McBane, Michael, ON…….. 08 McCaslin, Susan, BC 10-12,60 McConnell, Kim, ON………. 46 McCullough, J., ON……….5,54 McDowall, S., BC….…5,8,24,29 Mercola.com (extract/link) 29,34,38 Milham, Dr. Samuel (book)…34 Morton, Alexandra, BC……. 29 Neilly, Michael, ON…….…. 51

Nickerson, Mike, ON………. 40 OpenMedia.ca………..… 23-24 Ostermann, Gunther, BC…. 16 Pacific Co-Housing, BC…. 41 Parker, Don, ON……37,53,59 Personocratia, QC…..…… 56 Petrik, Denny, BC…………. 08 Pollack, Dr. G. H. (book) 38,59 Porter, J. S., ON………….. 09 Powe, B. W. ON………….. 59 Quinby, Peter, ON………... 31 Rappoport, Jon (quote,link) 59 Rovics, David, Oregon…… 20 Sauvé, Peter, QC………43-45 Save the Salish Sea………. 59 Shadbolt, John, ON…….37-38 Slade, Ken, Lithuania…….. 45 Spencer, Eileen, BC………. 22 Spencer, Herb, B`C……….. 06 Sustainability Project, ON… 40 Taylor, Jim, BC……………. 50

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